Effect of Statins on Helicobacter pylori Eradication Rate: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Statins have been used as adjuvants to standard treatment in order to increase the eradication ratesof Helicobacter pylori infection. This study aimed to summarize the results of the efficacy of adding statins to standard treatments used for the eradicationof H. pylori infection. We conducted a systematic search using a comprehensive combination of keywords in PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus to retrieve relevant studies from 1990 to 2020. The estimate of pooled relative risk (RR), as the effect measure, was calculated using random effects meta-analyses in Stata 14. We finally included 5 studies (all of them were randomized controlled trials). The meta-analysis of all studies showed that the pooled RR (95% confidence interval) was 1.03 (0.64–1.68) in the random effects model, which was not statistically significant. In other words, based on our meta-analysis, the addition of statins as an adjuvant therapy to the standard treatment regimens does not increase the rate of H. pylori eradication. However, further evidence is needed to confirm this result as the number of available studies was small.