1. Use of the hCONSORT Criteria as a Reporting Standard for Herbal Interventions for Common Dermatoses – A Systematic Review
J. Ornelas, MD, MAS 1, E. Routt, MD 2, P. Kallis, BS, BA 3, H. Lev-Tov, MD, MAS 3
1. University of California, Davis Department of Dermatology
2. Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Department of Dermatology
3. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Department of Dermatology and
Cutaneous Surgery
British Journal of Dermatology. DOI: /bjd.16256

2. Introduction (1) What’s already known?
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is popular with patients with skin disease
84.5% of patients with skin disease report using CAM in 2007
CAM interventions in dermatology are difficult to integrate into clinical practice
Generally due to lack of quality data on efficacy and safety

3. Introduction (2)
The CONSORT extension criteria on reporting herbal interventions (hCONSORT) aim to improve the quality of data reported for herbal interventions
Adherence to these guidelines is not known

4. Methods
Systematic review: search of Medline, Embase, Cochrane library for randomized controlled trials published 2009 – 2014
Narrowed to plant based interventions for acne, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis

5. Methods (2)
Publications independently analysed by 2 authors to determine number of hCONSORT criteria met
Analysis of variance used to examine differences in scores by each disease

6. Methods (3)
See Table 1: Standards for reporting…

7. Results
27 publications met criteria for inclusion (see Prisma diagram, Figure 1)

8. Results (1)
Only publications 4 reported at least 50% of hCONSORT criteria
Highest score 8/14 criteria satisfied
None of the publications satisfied a criteria in each category

9. Results (2) Mean score by disease
Acne: 4.9
Eczema: 3.7
Psoriasis: 2.9
No association between number of criteria satisfied and year of publication, journal impact factor, sample size

10. [Please include Table 2: Summary of adherence…]

11. Discussion (1) What does this study add?
This systematic review of the literature shows generally poor adherence to hCONSORT criteria
Particularly concerning as the 3 disease states examined are most common chronic diagnoses encountered in clinical dermatology for which many CAM intervention exist

12. Discussion (2)
Enforced adherence to hCONSORT criteria would improve quality of publications
This would ease integration of CAM into clinical practice when appropriate

13. Discussion (3) Our review brought up important points for discussion:
hCONSORT criteria could be refined to be more specific and easily applied
Dosing rationale for approved allopathic medications in dermatology is sometimes arbitrary, possibly unfair standard
Rationale for selected placebo may be assumed as obvious if it is standard of care for authors
Differences in manufacturing standards in various countries
Difficulty in reporting proprietary manufacturing techniques

14. Conclusions
This study demonstrates a lack of adherence to hCONSORT guidelines in acne, eczema and psoriasis
Future adherence to these guidelines will provide reliable data which will help to improve integration of CAM therapies, when appropriate

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