Abstract: OBJECTIVE To summarize the application status of fumigation (bath) agent in clinical practice, in order to provide theoretical guidance for the clinical application of fumigation (bath) agent of traditional Chinese medicine, provide reference for the establishment of application standard of fumigation (bath) agent of traditional Chinese medicine, and promote the development of external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine. METHODS With the theme of "fumigation and washing", all literatures from 2018 to 2019 were searched on CNKI, and a total of 334 clinical research literatures were included. The classification of diseases treated with fumigation (bath) agent, application characteristics of fumigation (bath) agent, preparation method of pharmaceutical solution, characteristics of drug appilcation, temperature, time, frequency, matters needing attention and adverse reactions were summarized. RESULTS Fumigant (bath) agent was widely used in orthopaedic diseases. In 88.0% of the literatures, traditional Chinese medicine was decocted with water to prepare liquid medicine. Sit bath liquid temperature (36-40℃) was generally lower than that of other fumigation therapy (38-45℃), sitz bath method of fumigation time (10-20 min) was generally lower than that of other fumigation therapy (20-30 min). In terms of application frequency, anorectal diseases and orthopaedic diseases were mostly treated twice a day, while other diseases were most commonly treated once a day. CONCLUSION Fumigation (bath) agent are widely used in clinical practice, with definite curative effect. They occupy an important position in external treatment of Chinese medicine and are worthy of promotion. However, in the application process, subjectivity was strong, and there was a lack of unified standards in each link, which hinders the further development of external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine. Therefore, the standardization of the application of fumigation (bath) agent was the development direction in the future, as well as the inevitable trend of external treatment of traditional Chinese medicine.