Systematic review and meta-analysis of tonifying kidney prescriptions for the treatment of male infertility with sperm DNA fragmentation
LIU Tao
ZHAO Qi
YANG Zhaoxu
XU Yan
SUN Zhixing
CHEN Yun
CHEN Jianhuai
Abstract：Objective To systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of kidney-tonifying prescriptions for the treatment of male infertility with sperm DNA fragmentation(SDF).Methods Randomized controlled trials(RCTs)on the improvement of SDF through kidney-tonifying prescriptions were retrieved from CNKI,VIP,Wanfang,PubMed,Cochrane Library,Embase,and Web of Science databases.The methodological quality of the retrieved literature was evaluated,and meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3.5 soft-ware.The outcome indicators were graded for quality using the GRADE system.Results A total of 17 RCT involving 2 164 male patients were included.Compared with conventional western medicine treatment,the prescription method significantly improved DNA fragmentation index(DFI)in male infertility patients(MD=-6.50,95％CI:-7.88,-5.11,P＜0.01),increased the spouse pregnancy rate(RR=2.11,95％CI:1.12,4.00,P=0.87),total sperm motility(MD=5.56,95％CI:4.39,6.74,P＜0.01),progressive motile sperm(MD=6.82,95％CI:5.62,8.03,P＜0.01),sperm concentration(MD=6.51,95％CI:3.81,9.21,P＜0.01),and per-centage of normal morphology sperm(MD=1.26,95％CI:0.45,2.06,P＜0.01).Additionally,kidney-tonifying prescriptions did not increase the likelihood of adverse reactions.Conclusion Low to moderate-quality evidence suggested that compared with conventional western medicine treatment,kidney-tonifying prescriptions have certain advantages in improving DFI,semen parameters,and spouse preg-nancy rates in male infertility patients,with good safety.
Keywords：sperm NDA damagesperm DNA fragmentation indexmale infertilitykidney-tonifying prescriptionsmeta-analysis
Publication Date：2026-01-20
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-24(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：9( 52-60 )