Objective: To systematically evaluate the efficacy of TCM syndrome differentiation and treatment combined with biofeedback in the treatment of functional constipation. Methods: All the clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of TCM syndrome differentiation and treatment combined with biofeedback in the treatment of functional constipation, which were published in September 2022, were retrieved by computer from CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, The Cochrane Library, Pubmed and Embase and other databases. Use RevMan5.3 software for meta analysis. Results: Totally 937 patients were included in 16 clinical randomized controlled trials. Meta analysis showed that traditional Chinese medicine based on syndrome differentiation and treatment combined with biofeedback treatment for functional constipation had more advantages than conventional biofeedback treatment in terms of effective rate (RR=1.21, 95% CI (1.13, 1.30), Z=5.61, P<0.0001) and improvement of constipation symptom score (SMD=-0.31, 95% CI (-0.53, -0.10), Z=2.82, P=0.005), and the negative rate was higher in balloon ejection test (RR=1.26, 95% CI (1.05, 1.50), Z=2.48, P=0.01), It plays a role in reducing anal systolic pressure (MD=15.56, 95% CI (8.59, 22.53), Z=4.38, P<0.0001), but it has no statistical significance in reducing anal resting pressure (MD=-1.25, 95% CI (-15.75, 13.25), Z=0.17, P=0.87), It also played a very good role in reducing anxiety score (MD=-5.04, 95% CI (-7.16, -2.92), Z=4.66, P<0.00001) and depression score (MD=-5.85, 95% CI (-7.93, -3.77), Z=5.52, P<0.00001), and had a greater advantage in reducing follow-up recurrence rate (RR=0.39, 95% CI (0.25, 0.60), Z=4.27, P<0.0001). In terms of adverse reactions, there was no significant difference between the treatment group and the observation group (P=1.00). Conclusion: TCM syndrome differentiation and treatment combined with biofeedback has more advantages than conventional biofeedback treatment.

Yanrong Zhan, Xianwen Cheng, Lianhui Liu, Yaping Cui, Jiyun Wu, Yu Zhao. A meta analysis of TCM syndrome differentiation and treatment combined with biofeedback in the treatment of functional constipation. International Journal of Frontiers in Medicine (2023), Vol. 5, Issue 4: 44-53. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJFM.2023.050408.

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