Review Article
Efficacy and Safety of Fire Needle Therapy for Flat Warts: Evidence from 29 Randomized Controlled Trials
Table 2
Summary of GRADE on the outcomes of the safety and efficacy of fire needle therapy for flat warts.
| | Certainty assessment | Number of patients | Effect | Certainty | Importance | | Number of studies | Study design | Risk of bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other considerations | Fire needle | Control group | Relative (95% CI) | Absolute (95% CI) |
| | Efficacy rate of fire needle alone vs. control groups |
| | 18 | Randomized trials | Serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 686/749 (91.6%) | 424/568 (74.6%) | RR 1.18 (1.09 to 1.28) | 134 more per 1,000 (from 67 more to 209 more) | ⊕⊕⃝⃝Low | Important |
| | Efficacy rate of fire needle combined therapies vs. control groups |
| | 20 | Randomized trials | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 831/863 (96.3%) | 579/694 (83.4%) | RR 1.16 (1.12 to 1.20) | 133 more per 1,000 (from 100 more to 167 more) | ⊕⊕⊕⃝Moderate | Important |
| | Skin lesions scores |
| | 9 | Randomized trials | Serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 725 | 619 | — | SMD 1 lower (1.43 lower to 0.57 lower) | ⊕⊕⃝⃝Low | Important |
| | Cytokine levels |
| | 2 | Randomized trials | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 207 | 162 | — | MD 0.4 higher (0.19 lower to 1 higher) | ⊕⊕⊕⃝Moderate | Important |
| | Recurrence rate |
| | 14 | Randomized trials | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 40/621 (6.4%) | 72/508 (14.2%) | RR 0.44 (0.30 to 0.63) | 79 fewer per 1,000 (from 99 fewer to 52 fewer) | ⊕⊕⊕⃝Moderate | Important |
| | Adverse events |
| | 15 | Randomized trials | Serious | Serious | Not serious | Not serious | None | 123/1794 (6.9%) | 109/1478 (7.4%) | RR 0.83 (0.56 to 1.23) | 13 fewer per 1,000 (from 32 fewer to 17 more) | ⊕⊕⃝⃝Low | Important |
|
|
CI, confidence interval; RR, risk ratio; SMD, standardized mean difference; MD, mean difference.
|
