Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Sep 15, 2023; 14(9): 1422-1449
Published online Sep 15, 2023. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v14.i9.1422
Effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine for diabetic retinopathy: A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials
Hong-Dian Li, Ming-Xuan Li, Wen-Hua Zhang, Shu-Wen Zhang, Yan-Bing Gong
Hong-Dian Li, Dongfang Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100700, China
Ming-Xuan Li, Capital Medical University, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100010, China
Wen-Hua Zhang, Shu-Wen Zhang, Yan-Bing Gong, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100700, China
Author contributions: Li HD and Li MX conceived and designed the study, performed the initial search and screening of the literature; Zhang SW was involved in the decision of literature inclusion; Zhang WH assessed the quality of the literature; Li HD and Li MX entered the literature data, including author information, year of publication, outcome indicators, and the profile of the study population; Li MX performed the network meta-analysis and produced the figures; Li HD performed the first draft of the manuscript; Zhang WH and Zhang SW performed the preliminary check and revision of the first draft; Gong YB performed the final revision of the manuscript and critically reviewed the results of the data; In addition, all personnel were familiar with the content of the manuscript; Li HD and Li MX contributed equally to this study.
Supported by The National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine for the Youth Qihuang Scholar Support Project.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have no conflict of interest of any kind.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
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: Yan-Bing Gong, PhD, Dean, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, No. 5 Haiyuncang Hutong, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100700, China. gyb_1226@163.com
Received: April 17, 2023
Peer-review started: April 17, 2023
First decision: June 1, 2023
Revised: June 14, 2023
Accepted: July 29, 2023
Article in press: July 29, 2023
Published online: September 15, 2023
Processing time: 148 Days and 21.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: To our knowledge, this study represents the first network meta-analysis (NMA) examining the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medicine in treating diabetic retinopathy (DR). Notably, this NMA includes the largest number of original studies, subjects, and variety of Chinese medicines to date. While the efficacy of Chinese medicine for DR has been widely recognized in China, no previous studies have systematically evaluated which Chinese medicine treatment is the most effective. Therefore, this study fills an important gap in the field.