Efficacy and Safety of Medicinal Encircling Therapy for Diabetic Foot Ulcers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Diabetic foot ulcers represent a major clinical challenge due to delayed healing and high risk of complications. Medicinal encircling therapy, a traditional external treatment, has been widely used as an adjunctive intervention in clinical practice. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of medicinal encircling therapy combined with conventional treatment for diabetic foot ulcers.

A comprehensive literature search was conducted across major English and Chinese databases from inception to November 1, 2025. Randomized controlled trials comparing medicinal encircling therapy plus conventional care versus conventional care alone were included. Primary and secondary outcomes related to ulcer healing, symptom improvement, inflammatory markers, pain, and adverse events were synthesized using risk ratios or mean differences with corresponding 95% confidence intervals. This systematic review was prospectively registered with PROSPERO (CRD420261299230).

Fifteen randomized controlled trials were included, all of which were published in Chinese. The pooled results showed that adjunctive medicinal encircling therapy significantly improved complete ulcer healing rate compared with conventional treatment alone (RR = 1.78, 95% CI 1.39-2.28). Overall clinical response and several secondary outcomes generally favored the intervention, although heterogeneity was observed for some outcomes. No serious treatment-related adverse events were reported.

These findings suggest that medicinal encircling therapy may be a promising adjunctive treatment for diabetic foot ulcers; however, the certainty and generalizability of the evidence are limited by methodological shortcomings, incomplete safety reporting, and the inclusion of Chinese-language studies only. Further high-quality, multicenter randomized controlled trials are warranted.