SynthesisMedicine2025
A meta-analysis of the efficacy of fractional CO2 laser combined with acupuncture for acne scars.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Laser treatment of acne scars: a bibliometric analysis and descriptive summary of clinical evidence directions over the past 20 years.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTo systematically evaluate the efficacy of fractional carbon dioxide (CO2) laser combined with acupuncture in acne scars based on the available evidence.
methodsChina National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, Chinese Biomedical Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database, PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science databases were searched for published articles on fractional CO2 laser combined with acupuncture for acne scars from their inception to March 22, 2024. Meta-analysis of the articles was performed using Stata/SE 15.0 software after an independent screening of the articles by 2 evaluators, extraction of data and then cross-checking, and quality evaluation of the included articles.
resultsA total of 6 articles, involving 468 patients with acne scars, were included. According to a meta-analysis, fractional CO2 laser combined with acupuncture (the treatment group) significantly reduced Echelle d'Evaluation Clinique des Cicatrices d'Acne scores compared to fractional CO2 laser alone (the control group), the efficacy was considerably better than that of fractional CO2 laser alone (relative risk (RR) = -3.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] [-4.47, -1.58], P = .000; RR = 1.31, 95% CI [1.14, 1.51], P = .000). The 2 groups did not differ significantly in patient satisfaction or adverse effects (persistent erythema and hyperpigmentation) (RR = 1.74, 95% CI [0.69, 4.36], P = .238; RR = 1.25, 95% CI [0.51, 3.07], P = .627; RR = 0.93, 95% CI [0.59, 1.47], P = .760).
conclusionsBased on the available studies, the efficacy of fractional CO2 laser combined with acupuncture for acne scars is significantly better than fractional CO2 laser alone, and there is no increase in the occurrence of side effects. However, we still need more rigorously designed, large-scale multicenter randomized controlled trials to verify this result.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.