Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jul 15, 2022; 13(7): 581-583
Published online Jul 15, 2022. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v13.i7.581
More studies are necessary to establish the effectiveness of Jinhuang powder in the treatment of diabetic foot
Ya-Wen Ye, Zi-Yun Yan, Lian-Ping He, Cui-Ping Li
Ya-Wen Ye, Zi-Yun Yan, Lian-Ping He, Cui-Ping Li, School of Medicine, Taizhou University, Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Li CP and He LP conceived of the presented idea and provided critical feedback to the final manuscript; Li CP, Ye YW and Yan ZY wrote and revised the manuscript; Li CP and He LP approved the main conceptual ideas and proof outline; all authors provided final edits and approved the manuscript.
Supported by the research work was supported by the Taizhou philosophy and social science planning project, No. 19GHZ05; and the Taizhou Science and technology planning project, No. 1902ky85.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Cui-Ping Li, MD, Teacher, School of Medicine, Taizhou University, No. 1139 Shifu Avenue, Taizhou 318000, Zhejiang Province, China. lcpyxy@tzc.edu.cn
Received: February 28, 2022
Peer-review started: February 28, 2022
First decision: April 17, 2022
Revised: April 18, 2022
Accepted: June 14, 2022
Article in press: June 14, 2022
Published online: July 15, 2022
Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is a common global public health problem that can cause serious illness and premature death. Diabetic foot ulcer, one of the complications of diabetes, is a major cause of morbidity and mortality and is associated with many other devastating complications. Previous study found that a group of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) can be used for treating diabetic foot ulcers. More and more attention is being paid to the use of Chinese medicine to heal diabetic feet. Under the guidance of relevant theories of traditional Chinese medicine, more studies are needed to reveal the key active components and related signal pathways of TCM in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer. One clinical study explored the treatment of diabetic foot with infection combined moist exposed burn ointment with Jinhuang powder. However, large-scale multi-center, double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials and animal studies are necessary to establish the effectiveness of Jinhuang powder in the treatment of diabetic foot.

Keywords: Diabetic foot, Jinhuang powder, Traditional Chinese medicine

Core Tip: In recent years, most diabetic foot patients in China are adopting traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine. The short duration of clinical follow-up was not sufficient to explain the efficacy of the treatment, and the safety of the treatment was not mentioned. Large multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled clinical trials and animal studies are necessary to determine Jinhuang powder as supplement combined with other Chinese medicine or western medicine as an effective and safe therapy for diabetic foot.