Tripterygium glycosides as an auxiliary therapy showed positive results in mitigating the symptoms of chronic urticaria, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ming Li et al. sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Tripterygium glycosides combined with H1-antihistamine in individuals with chronic urticaria.

Eight databases, including Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, PubMed, SinoMed, VIP, WanFang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database (CNKI) were explored for searching relevant randomized controlled trials. Leigongteng, Lei Gong Teng, Tripterygium, and Urticaria were among the search terms. Stata 12.0 and Rev Man 5.3 were utilized for the statistical evaluation.

There were 27 trials encompassing 2788 subjects. The pooled data demonstrated that the combination of Tripterygium glycosides and H1-antihistamine outperformed H1-antihistamine alone in terms of serum level of immunoglobulin E (standardized mean difference [SMD] = -1.39), wheal size (mean difference [MD] = -0.32), wheal number (MD = -0.31), pruritus (MD = -0.32), total efficacy rate (risk ratio [RR] = 1.40), and cure rate (RR = 1.37).

Also, there was no clinically meaningful inter-group difference in terms of the occurrence of mild adverse events. For individuals with refractory chronic urticaria, Tripterygium glycosides + H1-antihistamine is a beneficial and safe therapy. For the evidence to be supported, further high-quality trials are required.