Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of infliximab for the treatment of psoriasis in a meta-analysis framework.
Methods: Data were extracted by searching the EMBASE (1974-2014), PubMed(1966-2014) and the Cochrane library2013.4th databases. Only randomized and placebo-controlled studies were selected in this study.
Results: Statistically significant differences in efficacy were found for the infliximab (3 or 5 mg/kg) group compared with the control group which received placebo in the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris [OR 13.55, 95%CI (11.14,16.48)]or[OR85.45, 95%CI (39.13,186.58)]. There were also significant differences in efficacy between the infliximab (5 mg/kg) group and the placebo control group during treatment of psoriasis arthritis (PsA) [OR8.36, 95%CI (5.63, 12.40)]. A controlled trial used infliximab (5 mg/kg) in the treatment of palmoplantar psoriasis. This study showed that the effective rate of the infliximab group was 33.3% (4/12) when compared to the placebo control group, which was 8.3% (1/12).
Conclusion: Infliximab is significantly associated with symptom relief, skin lesion improvement, and an increase in the quality of life of psoriasis patients. The most common drug-induced adverse events were pain, hepatic dysfunction, and infusion reaction.
Keywords: Infliximab; meta-analysis; psoriasis; systematic review.