Abstract
Objectives : This study was carried out to assess the risk of bias of clinical trials on acne treatment with herbal medicine that have been published in Korea. Methods : 7 electronic databases in Korea were searched for clinical trials on acne treatment. Two independent reviewers selected clinical trials on herbal medicine treatment for acne. Selected studies are categorized according to DAMI(Study Design Algorithm for Medical literature of Intervention). RCTs are assessed according to Cochrane RoB(Risk of Bias), non-randomized studies(Before-after studies) are assessed according to RoBANS(Risk of Bias Assessment tool for Non-randomized Study). Results : After selection process, 25 articles are left. Among 25 articles, 3 RCTs and 4 before-after studies are finally included. In RCTs, the proportion of 'unclear' is high in criteria of 'random sequence generation', 'allocation concealment', and 'blinding'. In before-after studies, 'high' is high in criteria of 'blinding for outcome assessment' and 'incomplete outcome data'. Conclusions : Considering the above results of the assessment, it is necessary to conduct more well designed clinical trials on acne treatment with herbal medicine.