ObjectiveTo systematically review the effectiveness of Xuebijing injection combined with routine therapy versus routine therapy alone in treating severe pneumonia. MethodsDatabases including PubMed (1990-2013.4), EMbase (1990-2013.4), The Cochran Library (Issue 4, 2013), CNKI (1982-2013.4), WangFang Data (1990-2013.4), VIP (1989-2013.4) and CBM (1978-2013.4) were searched from inception to April, 2013, for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on Xuebijing injection for severe pneumonia. Studies were screened according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, data were extracted, and methodological quality was evaluated. Meta-analysis was then performed using RevMan 5.2 software. ResultsA total of 12 studies involving 860 patients were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that, routine therapy plus Xuebijing injection had higher total effective and excellent rates, and the combined therapy reduced the average hospitalization days, and they had better improvement in WBC, CRP, CPIS, IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α. ConclusionThis current evidence shows that Xuebijing injection has a better clinical efficacy in treating severe pneumonia. Traditional Chinese herbs with the function of "promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis" may exert their pharmacological effects via a multi-target way in treating severe pneumonia, which have a great potential for both clinical work and scientific research. Due to the limited quality and quantity of the included studies, better designed RCTs are needed to support Xuebijing's clinical efficacy in the treatment of severe pneumonia.