Efficacy and safety of honey dressing in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers: a Meta-analysis

Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of honey dressing in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). Methods Databases of PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, The Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI, WanFang and VIP were searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCT) about the honey dressing for DFU from database building to December, 2017. RevMan5.3 was used for data merge, Egger′s and Begg′s test were used for publication bias detection. GRADE profiler 3.6 was used for evidence grades assessment. Results A total of 8 RCTs involving 767 patients with DFU were included in this study. The results showed that honey dressing was more favorable than control dressing in complete healing rate (RR=1.32, 95%CI: 1.10-1.57, P=0.003), mean healing time (SMD=-1.12, 95%CI: -2.06--0.19, P=0.02), percentage of healing (SMD=1.84, 95%CI: 0.27-3.42, P=0.02) and wound bacterial clearance rate (RR=2.56, 95%CI: 1.33-4.92, P=0.005), while there was no significant difference between these two groups in amputation rate (RR=0.55, 95%CI: 0.19-1.54, P=0.25). No serious side effects were reported in all of these studies. GRADE recommendation level is B grade, medium recommendation. Conclusion Honey dressing is a relatively safe and effective method in the treatment of DFU. Key words: Honey dressing; Diabetic Foot; Ulcer; Efficacy; Safety; Meta-analysis