Efficacy and Safety of Indigo Naturalis in Combination with Narrow-Band Ultraviolet B for Treatment of Pityriasis Rosea: A Meta-Analysis

Pityriasis rosea(PR), a skin rash, causes substantial discomfort in patients. There is a lack of effective therapies for PR. A combination of ultraviolet irradiation and indigonaturalis treatment has been shown to be a safe and effective regime for control of PR; however, the data have been largely inconsistent. Tis meta-analysisfurther evaluated the efficacy and safety of this combination in patients with PR. The PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP, and Wan Fangdatabases were searched for relevant RCTs of this combination therapy in patients with PR. A total of eight studies with a combined study population of 688 patients published between January 2006 and March 2016 were eligible for this meta-analysis. The RevMan 5.3 software was used for the meta-analysis. The regimen of compound indigonaturalis plus NB-UVB showed much better control of PR as compared to that achieved with use of compound indigonaturalis or NB-UVB alone in terms of cure rate or effective rate. However, no significant difference was observed between the two with respect to incidence of adverse effects. The analysis was affected by publication biasas revealed by funnel plotanalysis. Further studies with large sample sizes are required to confirm our findings.