Acupoint herbal patching for allergic rhinitis

Acupoint herbal patching for allergic rhinitis

Acupoint herbal patching (AHP) is extensively used in treatment of allergic rhinitis in China. However, existing systematic review is insufficient. To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of AHP in treating allergic rhinitis. We searched seven electronic databases for RCTs from inception until August 2014. Two authors selected studies, extracted data and evaluated risk of bias independently. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was applied to assess the methodological quality of the included trials and RevMan 5.2 software was utilised to perform data analysis. Twenty RCTs involving 2438 participants were included. Most of them were evaluated as high risk of bias. AHP significantly decreased the recurrence rate at six months compared with western medicine (RR 0.52; 95% CI 0.42 to 0.64), and similar effect was found for AHP plus western medicine versus western medicine (RR 0.53; 95% CI 0.44 to 0.65). AHP appeared to be more effective than placebo in improving total clinical symptoms and signs after treatment and at 6 months, and in improving quality of life at less than 3 months and over 3 months. No severe adverse effects were found in the AHP groups. AHP alone or combined with western medicine appears to be more effective than placebo or western medicine respectively. AHP seems to be a safe treatment. However, the findings should be interpreted with caution. Further large-scale, rigorously designed trials are warranted to confirm the findings. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Source: Zhou F, Yan LJ, Yang GY, Liu JP. Acupoint herbal patching for allergic rhinitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Clin Otolaryngol. 2015 Mar 6.