Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effect of acupuncture-moxibustion for treatment of disease of skin and subcutaneous tissue and to provide objective evidence for classifying the evidence-based disease spectrum of acupuncture-moxibustion. Methods Retrieve PubMed

Cochrane Library

Ovid

EMBase

CBM

CNKI

WANFANG

VIP

and collect the randomized controlled trials of treatment of disease of skin and subcutaneous tissue with acupuncture and moxibustion

select those conforming with the enrolled criteria

and use Meta-analysis to evaluate the effect and grade the disease spectrum of acupuncture and moxibustion according to the evidence degree. Results Totally 1149 clinical studies in Chinese and 3 full text papers in English were acquired. Of them

there were 224 randomized controlled trials

and 56 studies conformed to the enrolled criteria

with 11 diseases involved. Based on the result of Meta-analysis and the quality of studies

4 studies of strong-evidence

10 of moderate-evidence

and 15 of weak-evidence were obtained. Conclusion Based on the present evidences

the effect of acupuncture-moxibustion is definitely beneficial in acne （cystic type）

chronic urticaria

and neurodermatitis （localized）; the effect of acupuncture-moxibustion is likely to be beneficial in chloasma

clavus

and pruritus; and the effect of acupuncture-moxibustion is possibly beneficial in alopecia areata

eczema

psoriasis

vitiligo

and bedsore.