ReviewAesthetic plastic surgery2026
Combination Therapy in Androgenetic Alopecia: A Network Meta-Analysis of Minoxidil and Other Pharmacological Agents.
Review in Aesthetic plastic surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis study explored the efficacy of different medications for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia by using network meta-analysis.
methodsThe search of PubMed, Embase, web of science, Cochrane library databases for randomized controlled studies on drug treatment of androgenetic alopecia was conducted from database creation to November 1, 2024, using risk of bias for quality assessment, R4.4.1 and Stata15 for Data analysis.
resultA total of 27 articles (n = 3012) were included in the analysis. The results indicated that in terms of efficacy, Minoxidil_spironolactone ranked highest, followed by Minoxidil_flutamide, Minoxidil_finasteride, and Placebo. SUCRA-based rankings suggest that Minoxidil_spironolactone is most likely the most effective, but these estimates should be interpreted cautiously due to limited study numbers and inherent uncertainty in the network. Regarding hair density, no significant differences were found between the interventions. In terms of hair count, PRPF_Minoxidil ranked highest, followed by PRPF, Dutasteride, and Placebo, with the same caution regarding the uncertainty of SUCRA-based rankings.
conclusionBased on the current studies, we found that the combination of Minoxidil with spironolactone, PRPF, flutamide, and finasteride may offer better treatment outcomes for patients with androgenetic alopecia. However, due to the limitations of the existing research, more high-quality, multi-center studies are needed to support our viewpoint. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE I: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .
Indexed as
Identifiers
42168420What OpenQuestion holds
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.