Orbital Cellulitis

Efficacy of Alternative and Other Treatments According to GRADE* Ranking:

Thuja (Eastern White Cedar, Thuja Occidentalis) [1, 12, 13, 14]:

Please note, this management does NOT treat the condition itself. It may mildly help with some of the symptoms, and even then has insufficient evidence to back up this claim at present. Little is known about the full effects of Thuja, so it is not recommended for medicinal use. Thuja can be poisonous if ingested in large amounts.

Recommendation: no recommendation (There is insufficient evidence to support claims that Thuja helps to treat cellulitis)

Grade of Evidence: very low quality of evidence

Tea Tree Oil [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]:

Please note, this management does NOT treat the condition itself. It is proposed only as a weak supportive symptomatic support, and even then, has insufficient evidence to back up this claim at present. WARNING: Tea Tree Oil is not recommended for children, pregnant women or mothers that are breastfeeding. Also, Tea tree oil should never be taken internally. Should only be used over skin, inhaled with a vaporizer, or mixed with water as a mouthwash.)

Recommendation: No recommendation (Research on the effectiveness of tea tree oil in treating cellulitis has yielded mixed results.)

Grade of Evidence: low quality of evidence

* www.gradeworkinggroup.org

Summary References

Treatments:

1. Ades T, Alteri R, Gansler T, Yeargin P, "Complete Guide to Complimentary & Alternative Cancer Therapies", American Cancer Society, Atlanta USA, 2009

2. http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/tea-tree-oil

3. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-teatreeoil.html

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18816275

5. http://bastyrcenter.org/content/view/972/&page=

6. http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/62/4/769?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=staphaseptic&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2145499

8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9055360

9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12451368

10. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9848442

11. Bishop, C.D. (1995). "Anti-viral Activity of the Essential Oil of Melaleuca alternifolia". Journal of Essential Oil Research: 641–644

12. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002769.htm

13. http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_thoc2.pdf

14. http://vsearch.nlm.nih.gov/vivisimo/cgi-bin/query-meta?v%3Aproject=medlineplus&query=thuja&x=0&y=0

 

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