Table 6.

Outcomes of RCTs that evaluated FGF safety and effectiveness.

Ref	Type of growth factor	Wound closure	Time to heal	Mechanism mentioned as complete healing		Confounders				Further outcomes
				Granulation tissue	Reepithelialization	Sex	Baseline HbA1c	Wound size	Offloading	Recurrence rate	Amputation rate
[21]	rhaFGF and rhbFGF	Healing in rhbFGF by 6-week treatment. No significant difference between the healing potential of bFGF and aFGF	42 days to complete healing in almost 50% of cases	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM
[22]	Liquid aFGF and EGF	Healing in shorter period in the combination group (p < 0.01) and in EGF-treated group (p < 0.05) compared with the control group	36-47 days in combination-treated group versus control	Y	Y	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM
[23]	Liquid bFGF	No significant difference	Mean healing time: 9.3 weeks for the bFGF and 5.8 weeks for the control group	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM
[24]	bFGF	The area of ulcer decreased by 57.5%, 72.3%, and 82.2% in the placebo, 0.001% in the bFGF, and 0.01% in the bFGF groups, respectively, and differences were significant between the 0.01% bFGF and placebo groups (p = 0.025)	NM	Y	Y	NM	NM	NM	NM	Approximately 10% in all groups	NM

FGF: fibroblast growth factor; Y: yes; N: no; NM: not mentioned.