Abstract: Objective This study aimed tosystematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of polyene phosphatidylcholine combined with metformin in the treatment of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods We searched CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, EMbase and PubMed for retrieving randomized controlled trials (RCT) on application of metformin and polyene phosphatidylcholine combination in treatment of patients with NAFLD before August 2018. The Meta analysis was carried out by using RevMan 5.3 software. Results Eighteen RCTs having 1596 patients with NAFLD were finally included, and 803 in observation received combination and 793 in the control received medicines without anyone of the two combined agents. The results showed that the efficacy in combination group was superior to that in the control as respect to the reduction of the homeostasis model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels, fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels, AST levels, ALT levels, GGT levels, LDL-C levels, TC levels, TG levels, increasing HDL-C levels, improving ultrasonic parameters, and liver/spleen CT value ratio (P＜0.05); there were no significantly differences in fasting insulin (FINS) levels and incidences of adverse effects between the two groups (P＞0.05). Conclusion The efficacy of polyene phosphatidylcholine combined with metformin in the treatment of patients with NAFLD is good without obvious adverse reactions. It is safe and reliable, and needs multi-centre verification as the low-level quality of all the studies included.

Key words: Non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases, Polyene phosphatidylcholine, Metformin, Therapy, Meta-analysis