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Phototherapy for treating foot ulcers in people with diabetes

Overview of attention for article published in Cochrane database of systematic reviews, June 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (92nd percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (67th percentile)

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2 news outlets
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15 X users
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3 Facebook pages
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2 Wikipedia pages

Citations

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28 Dimensions

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322 Mendeley
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Title
Phototherapy for treating foot ulcers in people with diabetes
Published in
Cochrane database of systematic reviews, June 2017
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd011979.pub2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Hong‐Tao Wang, Jin‐Qiu Yuan, Bin Zhang, Mao‐Long Dong, Chen Mao, Dahai Hu

Abstract

Foot ulcers are a disabling complication of diabetes that affect 15% to 25% of people with diabetes at some time in their lives. Phototherapy is a relatively new, non-invasive, and pain-free treatment method, which promotes the ulcer repair process through multiple mechanisms such as increased cell growth and vascular activity. Phototherapy may be used as an alternative approach for the treatment of foot ulcers in people with diabetes, but the evidence for its effect compared with placebo or other treatments has not yet been established. To assess the effects of phototherapy for the treatment of foot ulcers in people with diabetes. We searched the Cochrane Wounds Specialised Register (11 October 2016), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (the Cochrane Library, 2016, Issue 10), Ovid MEDLINE (11 October 2016), Ovid MEDLINE (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations) (11 October 2016), Ovid Embase (11 October 2016), EBSCO CINAHL Plus (11 October 2016), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (24 June 2017). We also searched clinical trials registries for ongoing and unpublished studies on 24 June 2017, and screened reference lists to identify additional studies. We used no restrictions with respect to language, date of publication, or study setting. Randomised controlled trials or cluster randomised controlled trials that 1) compared phototherapy with sham phototherapy, no phototherapy, or other physical therapy modalities, 2) compared different forms of phototherapy, or 3) compared phototherapy of different output power, wavelength, power density, or dose range, in adults with diabetes and an open foot ulcer of any severity, in any setting. Two review authors independently performed study selection, data extraction, and 'Risk of bias' assessment. We combined the study outcomes when appropriate. Eight trials with 316 participants met the inclusion criteria. Most of the included studies were single-centre studies that were carried out in clinics or hospitals with a sample size ranging from 14 to 84. We generally considered the included studies to be at unclear or high risk of bias, as they had one domain at high risk of bias, or three or more domains at unclear risk of bias.We did not identify any studies that reported valid data for time to complete wound healing. Meta-analysis of four studies including 116 participants indicated that participants receiving phototherapy may experience a greater proportion of wounds completely healed during follow-up compared with those receiving no phototherapy/placebo (64.5% for the phototherapy group versus 37.0% for the no phototherapy/placebo group; risk ratio 1.57, 95% confidence interval 1.08 to 2.28; low-quality evidence, downgraded for study limitations and imprecision). Two studies mentioned adverse events in the results; one study with 16 participants suggested that there were no device-related adverse events, and the other study with 14 participants suggested that there was no clear difference between phototherapy and placebo group.Four studies reported change in ulcer size, but primarily due to high heterogeneity, they were not combined. Results from individual trials (including 16 participants to 84 participants) generally suggested that after two to four weeks of treatment phototherapy may result in a greater reduction in ulcer size but the quality of the evidence was low due to unclear risk of bias in the original trial and small sample size. We based the analyses for quality of life and amputations on only one study each (28 participants and 23 participants respectively); both outcomes showed no clear difference between the phototherapy group and the no phototherapy/placebo group. This systematic review of randomised trials suggested that phototherapy, when compared to no phototherapy/placebo, may increase the proportion of wounds completely healed during follow-up and may reduce wound size in people with diabetes, but there was no evidence that phototherapy improves quality of life. Due to the small sample size and methodological flaws in the original trials, the quality of the evidence was low, which reduces our confidence in these results. Large, well-designed randomised controlled trials are needed to confirm whether phototherapy could be an effective option for the treatment of foot ulcers in people with diabetes.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 15 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 322 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 322 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 49 15%
Student > Bachelor 43 13%
Researcher 26 8%
Student > Ph. D. Student 25 8%
Other 21 7%
Other 43 13%
Unknown 115 36%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 88 27%
Nursing and Health Professions 44 14%
Social Sciences 12 4%
Psychology 9 3%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 7 2%
Other 39 12%
Unknown 123 38%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 30. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 26 December 2022.
All research outputs
#1,323,558
of 25,564,614 outputs
Outputs from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#2,817
of 13,156 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#26,045
of 328,806 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#87
of 269 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,564,614 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 13,156 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 35.8. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 328,806 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 269 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 67% of its contemporaries.