Cochrane is pleased to announce the publication of the new systematic review, Interventions for treatment of herpes labialis (cold sores on the lips).

This review includes 87 randomised controlled trials involving 22,631 people with healthy immune systems. It assesses the benefits and harms of 58 topical, oral and physical interventions, to inform clinical practice and guide patient decisions.

Main findings

• Topical aciclovir and penciclovir probably reduce healing time by about one day compared with placebo (moderate-certainty evidence).
• Oral valaciclovir reduces healing time by about one day, whereas oral aciclovir may make little to no difference (low-certainty evidence).
• Severe adverse events were rare, and mild or moderate events occurred infrequently and at similar rates across treatments.

The authors also call for core outcome sets for recurrent herpes labialis, and for greater inclusion of under-represented groups in future trials.

Read the full review: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD015216.pub2