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  4. Vol 7, Issue 3, 2026

Systematic Review on the Rehabilitation Efficacy of External Chinese Medicine Therapy Combined with Intestinal Microbiota Regulation in Children

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DOI: 10.23977/medsc.2026.070317 | Downloads: 0 | Views: 47

Author(s)

Yan Kailei 1, Cao Wenxin 1

Affiliation(s)

1 The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310006, China

Corresponding Author

Yan Kailei

ABSTRACT

This study aims to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of external Chinese medicine therapy combined with intestinal microbiota regulation for pediatric rehabilitation, so as to provide evidence based support for integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine rehabilitation in pediatrics. Relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were retrieved from Chinese and English databases. Literature screening and data extraction were performed by two independent reviewers. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was adopted for bias risk assessment, and Meta analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4 software. A total of 5 RCTs involving 492 pediatric patients were included, with 248 cases in the experimental group and 244 cases in the control group. The combined intervention group achieved a higher overall clinical effective rate (RR=1.41, 95%CI 1.23 1.62, P<0.001). Statistically significant improvements were observed in rehabilitation function, gastrointestinal symptoms and serum IL 6 level (SMD= 0.68, MD= 1.12, MD= 4.35, all P<0.001). The abundance of fecal Bifidobacterium was markedly elevated (MD=1.26, P<0.001). No significant difference was found in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups (RR=0.89, P=0.64). External Chinese medicine therapy combined with intestinal microbiota regulation can simultaneously improve rehabilitation function, intestinal microecology and inflammatory status in children with acceptable safety. Nevertheless, the number and overall methodological quality of included studies are limited, and large sample, high quality RCTs are still required to verify the findings.

KEYWORDS

External Chinese Medicine Therapy; Intestinal Microbiota; Pediatric Rehabilitation; Meta Analysis

CITE THIS PAPER

Yan Kailei, Cao Wenxin. Systematic Review on the Rehabilitation Efficacy of External Chinese Medicine Therapy Combined with Intestinal Microbiota Regulation in Children. MEDS Clinical Medicine (2026). Vol. 7, No. 3, 132-138. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/medsc.2026.070317.

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