The Effectiveness and Safety of Heat Sensitive Moxibustion for Anaphylactic Rhinitis: A PRISMA Compliance Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

Background Anaphylactic rhinitis (AR) is an IgE antibody-mediated, inflammatory disorder. Heat- sensitive moxibustion (HSM) has been accepted for AR in clinically. Our study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of HSM for AR. Methods We conducted a comprehensive literature review of the PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database (VIP) and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) from their inception to April 2020 for RCTs that compared HSM with other active intervention for AR. The primary outcome measure was the total nasal symptom and sign score, and secondary outcomes include total effective rate, Rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ) and adverse events. More than two authors independently conducted the process of data collection and analysis by Review Manager (Version 5.3). Results A total of 15 RCTs of 1087 participants were included in our study. The overall meta-analysis demonstrated that HSM were superior in relieving the symptoms and signs of AR in treatment (SMD = -1.46, 95%CI (-1.81, -1.10); P < 0.00001) or during the follow-up period (SMD = -2.87, 95%CI (-5.11, -0.63); P < 0.0001). The results also applied to the total effective rate (OR = 2.96, 95%CI (2.19, 4.00); P < 0.00001) and RQLQ (SMD = -7.80, 95%CI (-13.92, -1.68); P < 0.00001) in treatment. Subgroup analysis indicated that there was a significant difference between the HSM group and control group. There were two studies referred to the adverse effects. The overall level of evidence was low with low methodology quality. Conclusion This meta-analysis suggests that the effectiveness of HSM on AR were statistically significant in treatment or during the follow-up period. However, the included studies have relatively poor quality; further high-quality trials should be conducted to confirm our finding. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42019140723