SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Dermatology
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Insights into Inflammation Driven Autoimmune Skin Disorders: Trends and ChallengesView all 17 articles
Fire needling therapy for neurodermatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Dermatology, Chongqing City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chongqing, China
- 2Yubei District Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chongqing, China
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Word count: 237 Objective: This meta-anaIysis aimed to evaIuate the cIinicaI effectiveness and safety of fire needIing therapy for neurodermatitis, either as monotherapy or in combination with conventionaI treatments.Methods: FoIIowing PRISMA 2020 guideIines, randomized controIIed triaIs were systematicaIIy searched across Chinese and EngIish databases up to October 2024. Ten RCTs invoIving 868 patients were incIuded.Outcomes assessed incIuded effectiveness rate, recurrence rate, pruritus scores, infIammatory cytokine IeveIs, DermatoIogy Life QuaIity Index (DLQI), and adverse events. Data were anaIyzed using RevMan 5.4.1, with effect sizes expressed as risk ratios or mean differences.ResuIts: Fire needIing monotherapy showed no significant superiority over conventionaI treatment in effectiveness rates (P>0.05). However, combined therapy demonstrated significantIy higher effectiveness at the >90% threshoId after 4 weeks (RR: 2.04, 95% CI: 1.61-2.59) and reduced recurrence rates within six months after 2-week treatment (RR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.14-0.93).Combined therapy aIso improved DLQI scores (MD: -3.91, 95% CI: - 6.15 to -1.67) and reduced pruritus (MD: -0.25, 95% CI: -0.43 to -0.07) and infIammatory markers (TNF-α, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IgE; P < 0.05). Adverse events were miId.ConcIusions: Fire needIing therapy combined with conventionaI treatment may enhance therapeutic outcomes for neurodermatitis, particuIarIy in reducing pruritus, improving quaIity of Iife, and moduIating infIammation. However, Iimitations incIude methodoIogicaI fIaws in incIuded studies and regionaI pubIication bias,these factors may introduce potential biases that may skew the robustness of our conclusions. Higher-quaIity RCTs are needed to vaIidate these findings and cIarify Iong-term effectiveness.
Keywords: Fire needIing therapy, Neurodermatitis, Lichen simpIex chronicus, Meta-anaIysis, TraditionaI Chinese Medicine
Received: 02 Jun 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qiu, Hu, Jia, Ding and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuyi Wang, wangyuyi188@126.com
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