Efficacy and safety of Kangfuxin liquid for eczema: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Eczema is a chronic, recurrent dermatosis with the skin repeated inflammation, itching, red and swollen. Such experience often take a physical and mental double burden on patients and their caregivers and family member. At present, the existing treatment methods have different limitations. In China, Kangfuxin liquid has been clinically used to treat eczema, and has shown good therapeutic effect. In order to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of clinical data and bring more references for clinicians and experts, this paper adopted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of Kangfuxin liquid in the treatment of eczema. We conducted a search in several databases, including EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Library, to identify suitable randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Following this, we gathered data from the RCTs which compared conventional therapies to Kangfuxin liquid alone or in combination with conventional therapies. We utilized RevMan 5.4 software to compute 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and risk ratios (RRs), and to carry out the meta-analysis. 17 meta-analyses involving 1725 patients were included. A meta-analysis showed that standalone Kangfuxin liquid therapy significantly improved the overall effective rate compared to nonglucocorticoid ointment therapy (Kangfuxin liquid vs nonglucocorticoid ointment: RR, 1.24; 95% CI, 1.09–1.42; P = 0.001). The total effective rate for standalone Kangfuxin liquid therapy was consistent with that of glucocorticoid ointment therapy (Kangfuxin liquid vs glucocorticoid ointment: RR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.88–1.36; P = 0.41). In addition, the results were significantly improved when Kangfuxin liquid combined with conventional western medicine (Kangfuxin liquid + conventional Western medicine vs conventional Western medicine: RR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.03–1.22; P = 0.009). Kangfuxin liquid can effectively treat eczema. However, further scale-up, involving more rigorous, precise, and inclusive meta-analyses are needed to make a significant difference in the treatment of eczema.