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Author Spotlight: Exploring ShiDuGao's Multi-Target Approach in Anus Eczema Treatment
Published on: January 12, 2024
Topical application of Chinese herbal medicine for atopic eczema: a systematic review with a meta-analysis
Sherman Gu1, Angela Weihong Yang, Chun Guang Li
1Discipline of Chinese Medicine, School of Health Sciences, RMIT University, Melbourne, Vic., Australia.
Background:
Atopic eczema (AE) affects 10-20% of children in industrialised countries.
Objective:
This review systematically evaluated the effects and safety of topical use of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) for AE.
Methods:
Randomised controlled trials on topical use of CHM were identified through searching electronic databases. Their risk of bias was assessed. Meta-analysis was conducted by employing the RevMan 5.2 software.
Results:
Ten studies involving 1,058 participants were included. These studies had high risk of bias in randomisation, blinding and outcome data. Meta-analysis showed that topical applications of CHM were superior to conventional medications in total effectiveness rate (risk ratio 1.19; 95% confidence interval 1.04 to 1.36). No significant difference was observed in overall skin lesion score (standardised mean difference -0.05; 95% confidence interval -0.88 to 0.78) compared to corticosteroid creams.
Conclusions:
There was no conclusive evidence to demonstrate that topical application of CHM for AE was superior to other control interventions due to methodological weaknesses of the included randomised controlled trials.
