Objective To observe the curative effects of external treatment in preventing and treating recurrent respiratory tract infections in children

and to provide the basis for optimizing the treatment protocols. Methods A total of 96 children with repeated respiratory infections were randomly divided into a dog-day and coldest day acupoint application group given acupoint application for 3 weeks each in the coldest and dog days for 3 weeks)

a four-solar term group given the treatment of chiropractics in the beginning of spring

summner

autumn and winter for 10 consecutive days

and a acupoint application combined with chiropractics group given the combined treatment mentioned above

with 32 cases in each group. After 2 years of treatment

the patients′ condition

treatment course

and entity class of the patients in each group were counted

and the clinical efficacy and TCM syndrome efficacy of each group for 1 year and 2 years of treatment were compared. Results A total of 7 cases were lost during the treatment

and 89 cases were finally included for statistical analysis. After 1 year and 2 years of treatment

the distribution of acute respiratory infection condition

disease species and disease course in the group of acupoint application combined with chiropractics group was statistically significant compared with the group of dog-day and coldest day acupoint application group and four-solar term chiropractics group（P<0.05）. After 1 year of treatment

the total effective rate of clinical efficacy was 80.0%

75.0% and 87.1% respectively in the dog-day and coldest day acupoint application group

four-solar term chiropractics group and acupoint application group combined with chiropractics group. After 2 years of treatment

the effective rate of all groups were 100%. After 1 year of treatment

the rates of "obvious effective + recovery" of TCM syndrome were 60.0%

71.5% and 87.0% respectively in dog-day and coldest day acupoint application group

four-solar term chiropractics group

and acupoint application combined with four-solar term chiropractics group

and after 2 years of treatment

those were 80.0%

75.0% and 87.1% respective. The total effective rate of treatment for 1 year and 2 years was 100% in all groups. The efficacy of 2 years of treatment in all groups was superior to that for 1 year treatment（P<0.05）. The difference in clinical efficacy and TCM syndrome efficacy between the groups of 1 and 2 years of treatment was statistically significant（P<0.01）. The acupoint application combined with chiropractics group was superior to the other 2 groups（P<0.05）. There was no statistically significant difference in the group of dog-day and coldest day acupoint application group and four-solar term chiropractics group（P>0.05）. Conclusion Compared with the single use of dog-day and coldest day acupoint application and four-solar term chiropractics group

acupoint application combined with chiropractics group has better curative effects

and the 2 methods combination sequential therapy can become the optimal external treatment protocols for preventing and treating repeated respiratory tract infections in children.