External application of traditional Chinese medicine on treatment of breast cancer related lymphedema: a systematic review / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To systematic review the efficacy and safety of external application of traditional Chinese medicine on treatment of breast cancer related lymphedema.Methods:CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP, Sino-Med, The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science were searched for related randomized controlled trials, the retrieval time was from inception to May 25, 2020. Two researchers independently screened and evaluated the included studies. Meta-analysis was performed by RevMan 5.4 software.Results:A total of 16 studies involving 1 315 patients with breast cancer related lymphedema were included, and the methodological quality of the included studies was not high. Compared with conventional treatment, external application of traditional Chinese medicine combined with conventional treatment had advantages in improving the total efficiency( P<0.01) and quality of life( P<0.01), reducing pain( P<0.01) and improving upper limb function( P<0.01), without obvious adverse reactions( P>0.05), but there was no improvement in depression( P>0.05). Compared with conventional treatment, external application of traditional Chinese medicine could improve the total efficiency( P<0.01). Compared with placebo sticker combined with conventional treatment, external application of traditional Chinese medicine combined with conventional treatment can reduce circumference( P<0.05) and reduce pain( P<0.01), without obvious adverse reactions( P>0.05). Conclusions:Available evidence suggests that external application of traditional Chinese medicine may be a potential treatment method for breast cancer related lymphedema. Due to the poor methodological quality of the included studies, high-quality randomized controlled trials are still needed.