Efficacy and safety of montelukast–levocetirizine combination therapy in combined allergic rhinitis and asthma syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of montelukast combined with levocetirizine in the treatment of allergic rhinitis with asthma, and to provide objective and effective evidence-based medical evidence for clinical use. PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, WANFANG DATA, CNKI, and Chinese BioMedical Literature Database were retrieved to identify records related to montelukast combined with levocetirizine in the treatment of allergic rhinitis with asthma. First, the eligibility criteria were employed to screen search results. Then, two investigators independently assessed titles, abstracts, and the full text of all retrieved references to identify potentially eligible studies. As of 2024-02-03, a total of six articles were included in this meta-analysis, covering 2,950 patients with allergic rhinitis with asthma. The meta-analysis results exhibited a pooled NSS of −1.28 (95%CI: −1.64 to −0.92), suggesting that the combination of montelukast and levocetirizine was effective in the treatment of nasal symptoms of allergic rhinitis complicated with asthma. The meta-analysis of controlled trials showed that the SMD of NSS in the group of montelukast combined with levocetirizine was −2.56 (95%CI: −2.77 to −2.35). The result indicated that compared with the control group, the combination of montelukast with levocetirizine significantly improved the symptoms of allergic rhinitis. In summary, this meta-analysis demonstrated the efficacy of montelukast combined with levocetirizine in the treatment of nasal symptoms in AR with asthma, indicating that the combination of montelukast with levocetirizine is more effective in improving symptoms of allergic rhinitis than monotherapy and has good safety.