Traditional Chinese medication for oral submucous fibrosis: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of various drug therapy methods for treating oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) in terms of increasing mouth opening, reducing VAS score, decreasing lesion area, minimizing side effects, and determining effective proportion. MethodA database search was conducted. Only randomized clinical trials were included, and Cochrane checklist was used for assessing the risk of bias. Stata.17 software was employed and effective treatment ranking was used. ResultsThirty-one RCT studies, with a total of 2986 patients, were included in the period of 2010-2022. The combination of oral Chinese herbal medicine formulas (OC) and intralesional Salvia miltiorrhiza (ISM) was found to be the most effective treatment in improving mouth opening. For reducing the burning pain, the combination of intralesional steroids (IS) and oral Salvia miltiorrhiza (OSM) was found to be more effective than the others. In terms of lesion area, IS combined with OC was more effective than the others. IS combined with ISM had the highest effective proportion while having the lowest incidence of side effects which mentioned the incidence of side effects. ConclusionThis study indicates that OC and SM can be employed by clinicians for treating OSF effectively.

Automated summary

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of different drug therapy methods for treating oral submucous fibrosis (OSF), including increasing mouth opening, reducing VAS score, decreasing lesion area, minimizing side effects, and determining effective proportion. The results showed that oral Chinese herbal medicine formulas (OC) combined with intralesional Salvia miltiorrhiza (ISM) were the most effective treatment in improving mouth opening. In terms of reducing burning pain, the combination of intralesional steroids (IS) and oral Salvia miltiorrhiza (OSM) was found to be more effective than other methods. The study concludes that OC and SM can be employed by clinicians for treating OSF effectively.