Objective To investigate the therapeutic effect of Bushen Huoxue Tongluo Recipe on chronic aplastic anemia in old patients and to explore its mechanismMethods 67 old patients with CAA were randomly divided into treated group (34 cases) and control group (33 cases)The treated group was treated with BSHXTL recipe plus routine western medicine, while control group was treated with western medicine alone to examine respectively the apoptosis of bone marrow cells with enzymelinked double antibody sandwich immunospecific assaybefore and after treatmentResults The cure rate, remission, total effective rate of treated group were 4118%, 2352%, 8529% respectivelyThose of the control group were 2121%, 1819%, 6061% respectivelyThere was significant difference between the two groups in the therapeutic effect (P<001)Apoptotic indexes in bone marrow cells in two groups before treatment were higher than that in healthy control group (P<001)In treated group, apoptotic indexes in bone marrow cells after treatment were significantly lower than that before treatment (P<001), there was significant difference compared with that of control group(P<001)Conclusions The therapeutic effect of BSHXTL recipe on old patients in CAA is reliable, and its side effect is smallThe therapeutic mechanism of BSHXTL recipe in treating old patients with CAA could inhibit overapoptosis of the bone marrow cells so as to promote bone marrow to rebuild hematopoietic function