ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effect of acupuncture-moxibustion for treatment of disease of skin and subcutaneous tissue and to provide objective evidence for classifying the evidence-based disease spectrum of acupuncture-moxibustion. Methods Retrieve PubMed,Cochrane Library,Ovid,EMBase,CBM,CNKI,WANFANG,VIP,and collect the randomized controlled trials of treatment of disease of skin and subcutaneous tissue with acupuncture and moxibustion,select those conforming with the enrolled criteria,and use Meta-analysis to evaluate the effect and grade the disease spectrum of acupuncture and moxibustion according to the evidence degree. Results Totally 1149 clinical studies in Chinese and 3 full text papers in English were acquired. Of them,there were 224 randomized controlled trials,and 56 studies conformed to the enrolled criteria,with 11 diseases involved. Based on the result of Meta-analysis and the quality of studies,4 studies of strong-evidence,10 of moderate-evidence,and 15 of weak-evidence were obtained. Conclusion Based on the present evidences,the effect of acupuncture-moxibustion is definitely beneficial in acne (cystic type),chronic urticaria,and neurodermatitis (localized); the effect of acupuncture-moxibustion is likely to be beneficial in chloasma,clavus,and pruritus; and the effect of acupuncture-moxibustion is possibly beneficial in alopecia areata,eczema,psoriasis,vitiligo,and bedsore.