Objective To analyze medication principles of Chinese medicine external therapies treating chemotherapeutic peripheral neuropathy based on published literature. Methods Review all published literature of clinical research about Chinese medicine external therapies treating chemotherapeutic peripheral neuropathy from Chinese Biology Literature Database

Journal Full-Text Database of China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang Data from January of 2005 to December of 2014. Establish database of Chinese medicine external therapies treating chemotherapeutic peripheral neuropathy. Make statistics of the frequency of herbs applied. Make descriptive analysis of herbs’ type

effect

property

flavor channel tropism

etc. Results A total of 35 papers were included

35 prescriptions involved

64 herbs. The frequency was 290 in total

and 64 herbs were classified into 11 types according to effect. The most frequent herbs applied were herbs of activating blood and removing stasis（ 34. 83%）; more frequent herbs were herbs of dispelling wind and dampness（ 18. 62%）

relieving the exterior（ 11. 72%）

warming interior（ 11. 03%）

invigorating Qi（ 8. 28%） and invigorating blood（ 7. 93%）. Herbs which frequency were more than 5were 17. Top ten were Guizhi（ Cassia Twig）

Honghua（ Carthamus tinctorius）

Danggui（ Angelica sinensin）

Huangqi（ Astragalus mongholicus）

Weilingxian（ radix clematidis）

Jixueteng（ lignum millettiae）

Chishao（ radix paeoniae rubrathe）

Shenjincao（ lycopodium clavatum） and Fuzi（ radix aconiti carmichaeli）. The most frequent herb property applied was warm（ 39. 06%）. Total frequency of warm

slightly warm and hot herbs was 51. 56%. The most frequent herb flavor applied was pungent（ 38. 00%）. Total frequency of pungent

sweet and slightly sweet herbs was 58. 00%. The most frequent herb channel tropism applied was Liver Meridian（ 32. 39%）; second was Spleen Meridian（ 15. 49%）; third was Lung Meridian（ 12. 68%）. Conclusion The basic medication principles were supplementing Qi

activating blood

removing stasis

warming Yang and dredging collaterals in Chinese Medicine external therapies treating chemotherapeutic peripheral neuropathy. Pungent

warm

promoting and dispelling herbs

which could activate blood

remove stasis

dispel wind and dampness

warm interior and invigorate Qi and blood

were commonly applied clinically.