Liao 2011.

Methods	Randomised clinical trial, China Parallel‐group design
Participants	Included participants: 60 participants diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B according to "The guideline of prevention and treatment for chronic hepatitis B" (CSH‐CMA and SID‐CMA 2006), in light or moderate disease degree (CSIP‐CMA and CSH‐CMA 2001): disease duration longer than 6 months, HBsAg and HBV‐DNA positive in serum, ALT persistent or repeated abnormal in serum, could not afford antiviral treatments, 18 to 65 years old, willing to participate in the trial Male:Female = 48:12 Mean age: experimental group 36.5 years, control group 35.4 years Exclusion criteria: participants who did not meet the inclusion criteria; participants with serious chronic hepatitis B (CSIP‐CMA and CSH‐CMA 2001); participants with hepatitis caused by factors such as drug poisoning and alcohol poisoning; participants with autoimmune hepatitis; participants with chronic hepatitis caused by other hepatitis viruses; participants with cirrhosis; participants with hepatocellular carcinoma, hepatic encephalopathy, and serious cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease; participants with renal system, endocrine system, or hematopoietic system disease; pregnant, preparing for pregnancy, or lactating women; participants younger than 18 years or older than 65 years; participants with an allergic history of Yin Chen Hao (Herba artemisiae); participants taking antiviral drugs; participants unwilling to accept the intervention or who could not co‐ordinate with researchers (e.g. participants with mental disease)
Interventions	Experimental intervention: acupoint herbal patching: mixture of traditional Chinese herb Yin Chen Hao, Da Huang, Zhi Zi. Cover the acupoints Ji Men (SP 11) and Ri Yue (GB 24) on the right side, with patching for 4 hours to 8 hours, once daily, 3 weeks (n = 30) Control intervention: no intervention (n = 30) Co‐intervention: diammonium glycyrrihizinate injection 150 mg, once daily, 3 weeks (n = 30)
Outcomes	Liver biomarkers: AST, ALT, A/G, and TBIL; routine blood tests, routine urinalysis, and stool analysis; renal biomarkers
Notes	Study dates: 2010.08 to 2011.04 We called the telephone number of the study authors' hospital on 25 April 2018, but we could not contact the people. We could not obtain their email addresses or any other contact details
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Random numbers table
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Information on random allocation was hidden in opaque envelopes
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Except for equally implemented co‐interventions, the experimental group used acupoint herbal patching, and the control group used nothing, which can easily unseal the blinding
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	No information provided
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	The number of participants included in the analysis was equal to the number of participants randomised
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	We could not find any protocols for this study, and this study did not report any outcomes that were defined as primary outcomes in our protocol
Other bias	Low risk	The study appeared to be free of other factors that could put it at risk of bias