Akupunktiotutkimukset muihin sairauksiin ja tilanteisiin liittyen
Akupunktiotutkimusta tehdään useiden erilaisten terveysongelmien suhteen. Tältä sivulta löytyy laaja kirjo erilaisia katsauksia moniin eri vaivoihin. Tutkimusten aiheet käsittelevät erilaisia silmien ja kuulon ongelmia, iho-ongelmia, allergioita, fibromyalgiaa, erilaisia autoimmuunisairauksia ja tulehdustiloja, sisätauteja, akupunktion käyttöä ennen ja jälkeen leikkauksien, traumojen hoitoa sekä esimerkiksi akupunktion ja kuppauksen käyttöä urheilusuorituksista palautumiseen.
Tältä sivulta löytyy myös tutkimuksia mahdollisista haittavaikutuksista ja turvallisuudesta esimerkiksi verenohennuspotilaiden kohdalla. Lisäksi mukana on joitakin katsauksia ylipäätään akupunktiotutkimukseen ja sen kasvaviin määriin tieteellisissä julkaisuissa.
Sivulla tutkimukset näkyvä aikajärjestyksessä, eikä niitä toistaiseksi ole tarkemmin jaettu aiheittain. Mahdollisesti uusia aihealueita tullaan lisäämään sivustolle myöhemmin, jolloin tutkimusten selaaminen helpottuu.
Selaa tutkimuksia tai valitse aiheaulue
Kipu Migreeni Naisten terveys Miesten terveys Metabolia & sydänterveys Ruuansulatuselimistö Syövän tukihoito Psyykkinen terveys ja uni Neurologiset ongelmat Vaikutusmekanismit Muut
The analgesic effect of acupuncture in neuropathic pain: regulatory mechanisms of DNA methylation in the brain.
"Recent research has demonstrated that chronic pain, resulting from peripheral nerve injury, leads to various symptoms, including not only allodynia and hyperalgesia but also anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairment. These symptoms are believed to arise due to alterations in gene expression and neural function, mediated by epigenetic changes in chromatin structure. Emerging evidence suggests ..."
Jang J., Lee Y. et al. (2024) The analgesic effect of acupuncture in neuropathic pain: regulatory mechanisms of DNA methylation in the brain. Pain Rep. 2024;9(6):e1200-e1200. 🔗
Therapeutic effects of acupuncture therapy for kidney function and common symptoms in patients with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
"The number of clinical reports of acupuncture therapy in chronic kidney disease (CKD) is gradually increasing. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to examine the therapeutic role of acupuncture therapy in kidney function and common symptoms in CKD patients. We searched Embase, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, and WeiPu ..."
Liu S., Zhang F. et al. (2024) Therapeutic effects of acupuncture therapy for kidney function and common symptoms in patients with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ren Fail. 2024;46(1):2301504-2301504. 🔗
Acupuncture for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Twenty-four RCTs (with 26 publications) involving 2,390 women were included. Acupuncture plus WM significantly led to a reduction in Pregnancy-Unique Quantification of Emesis (PUQE) scores and ineffective rates compared with WM alone (PUQE: mean difference [MD] -1.95, 95% confidence interval [CI] -3.08 to -0.81, P = 0.0008, I = 90%, 523 participants, six studies; ineffective rates: risk ratio [RR] 0.27, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.39, P < 0.00001, I = 7%, 16 studies). It also resulted in a greater improvement in ketonuria, shorter length of stay, and lower scores on the NVP Quality of Life and Chinese Medicine Syndrome Scale. Acupuncture was superior to WM in terms of reduction in ineffective rates (RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.30 to 0.81, P = 0.006, I = 0%, five studies). Acupuncture and WM had comparable results in improvement in PUQE scores (MD -0.80, 95% CI -3.06 to 1.47, P = 0.49, I = 89%, three studies) and ketonuria negative rates. The evidence is not clear regarding the impact of acupuncture on depression and anxiety compared with that of sham acupuncture. The incidence of severe adverse events was not significantly different between acupuncture and WM or sham acupuncture. Evidence certainty ranged from moderate to very low. Of the 24 RCTs, 19 used the Neiguan (PC6) acupoint, 16 used the Zusanli (ST36) acupoint, and 13 used the Zhongwan (CV12) acupoint. ..."
Jin B., Han Y. et al. (2024) Acupuncture for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Complement Ther Med. 2024:103079-103079. 🔗
Efficacy of acupuncture for allergic rhinitis in children: Systematic review and meta‑analysis with trial sequential analysis.
"...RESULTS: Thirteen studies involving 1186 participants were included. In results, acupuncture group (AC group) versus medication group (Med group) shows no significant difference in the treatment of AR in children (risk ratio [RR] = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.97 to 1.24, p = 0.13), while TSA suggested the included sample size did not exceed required information size (RIS). Significant differences were found between the AC + Med group versus the Med group (RR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.17 to 1.42, p < 0.00001), with sufficient sample size. Results in serum IgE after treatment which favored the Med group (MD = 51.94, 95% CI [22.24, 81.65], p = 0.0006). In terms of relapse rate, The AC group had a lower relapse rate than the Med group (RR = 0.40, 95% CI = 0.26-0.63, p < 0.0001). ..."
Xiao Q., Ni Z. et al. (2024) Efficacy of acupuncture for allergic rhinitis in children: Systematic review and meta‑analysis with trial sequential analysis. Int Forum Allergy Rhinol. 2024. 🔗
Efficacy of Combining Acupuncture and Physical Therapy for the Management of Patients With Frozen Shoulder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...RESULTS: A total of 13 studies were included. The combined approach significantly reduced pain (SMD = -0.891) with considerable heterogeneity (I² = 85.3%) and improved clinical effective rates (OR = 3.693, I² = 0%). Significant improvements were also observed in active and passive range of motion, with varying degrees of heterogeneity. ..."
Xu B., Zhang L. et al. (2024) Efficacy of Combining Acupuncture and Physical Therapy for the Management of Patients With Frozen Shoulder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Pain Manag Nurs. 2024. 🔗
Clinical research progress on acupuncture for the treatment of otogenic vertigo
"Otogenic vertigo is a common disorder that affects the vestibular system, which often results in considerable discomfort and impaired daily functioning. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), including acupuncture and moxibustion, has been historically utilized to manage the symptoms of vertigo. However, the effectiveness and methodology of these treatments have rarely been investigated in the medical ..."
Yi A., Yang G. et al. (2024) Clinical research progress on acupuncture for the treatment of otogenic vertigo World J Clin Cases. 2024;12(19):3676-3683. 🔗
Acupuncture for dyspnea and breathing physiology in chronic respiratory diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
"...RESULTS: A total of 23 studies meeting the inclusion criteria were found in databases, covering various CRDs such as COPD, lung cancer, and asthma. A meta-analysis that compared acupuncture to a control group (which included no acupuncture and sham acupuncture) found significant advantages for acupuncture in reducing dyspnea severity ( = 0.0003), increasing 6MWD ( < 0.00001), improving quality of life measured by St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire ( = 0.03) and karnofsky performance status score ( < 0.00001). No significance was found in breathing physiology represented by FEV ( = 0.34) and FVC ( = 0.15). There was a comparable incidence of negative outcomes in both groups ( = 0.07). Results were consistent when compared to sham acupuncture. In addition, subgroup analyses were also consistent when different diseases or types of acupuncture were analyzed. ..."
Yu Y., Xiao W. et al. (2024) Acupuncture for dyspnea and breathing physiology in chronic respiratory diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Heliyon. 2024;10(10):e31176-e31176. 🔗
Durable Effects of Acupuncture for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
"PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) is a degenerative joint disease which can result in chronic pain and disability. The current interventions available for KOA often fail to provide long-lasting effects, highlighting the need for new treatment options that can offer durable benefits. Previous studies have suggested the efficacy of acupuncture for knee osteoarthritis (..."
Chen H., Shi H. et al. (2024) Durable Effects of Acupuncture for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2024. 🔗
The combined application of ear acupuncture in the treatment of allergic rhinitis: A meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: A total of 15 papers with 1002 patients were included in the final study. ①Clinical efficiency: The clinical efficiency of ear acupuncture combined with control group was higher than that of control group, and the difference was statistically significant ( < 0.00001); ② Nasal symptom score: the effect of ear acupuncture combined with control group on allergic rhinitis on nasal symptoms was more obvious than that of control group, and the difference was statistically significant ( = 0.004); ③ Nasal itching symptom score: the efficacy of ear acupuncture combined with control group on allergic rhinitis on nasal itching symptom was significantly higher than that of control group, and the difference was statistically significant ( = 0.01). ④Sneeze symptom score: the effect of ear acupuncture combined with control group on allergic rhinitis on nasal itching symptom was more effective than that of control group, and the difference was statistically significant ( < 0.00001); ⑤Score of runny nose symptom: the effect of ear acupuncture combined with control group on allergic rhinitis on runny nose symptom was more obvious than that of control group, the difference was statistically significant ( = 0.004); ⑥Nasal congestion symptom scores: The effect of ear acupuncture combined with control group on allergic rhinitis on nasal congestion symptom was more obvious than that of control group, and the difference was statistically significant ( = 0.003). ..."
Cheng S., Rong K. et al. (2024) The combined application of ear acupuncture in the treatment of allergic rhinitis: A meta-analysis. Heliyon. 2024;10(4):e25181-e25181. 🔗
Identifying the effective combination of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicinal herbs for postmenopausal osteoporosis therapy through studies of their molecular regulation of bone homeostasis.
"Worldwide, as the population age, osteoporosis is becoming increasingly common, and osteoporotic fractures have a significant economic burden. Postmenopausal women are the most susceptible to developing osteoporosis and the most critical time to prevent it is during the perimenopausal and early menopausal years. In this regard, we hypothesize rational combination of acupuncture and Traditional ..."
Ping R., Quanwu W. et al. (2024) Identifying the effective combination of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicinal herbs for postmenopausal osteoporosis therapy through studies of their molecular regulation of bone homeostasis. J Tradit Chin Med. 2024;44(1):212-212. 🔗
Advances in acupuncture treatment for tinnitus.
"Tinnitus is the abnormal perception of sound in the absence of a corresponding external acoustic stimulus, which seriously affects the patients' quality of life, physical and mental health, and the safety of life. There is almost no effective cure for tinnitus, primarily due to its complicated etiopathogenesis and unclear mechanisms. As a major and ..."
Yu S., Wu J. et al. (2024) Advances in acupuncture treatment for tinnitus. Am J Otolaryngol. 2024;45(3):104215-104215. 🔗
Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture in Managing COPD: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.
"...RESULTS: Twenty-two SRs/MAs were included in this overview. Based on the assessment using AMSTAR 2, nineteen SRs/MAs were "critically low". Eight SRs/MAs had a low risk of bias. Based on PRISMA-A, the reporting completeness of eighteen SRs/MAs were more than 70%. As for GRADE assessment, only three outcome measures were of high quality. COPD patients can benefit from moxibustion, acupoint application, acupoint catgut embedding, manual acupuncture, and electroacupuncture, as indicated by effectiveness in measures including lung function, 6MWD, mMRC, CAT, and acute exacerbation. In addition, the efficacy of TENS needed to be further demonstrated. The commonly used acupuncture points in the RCTs include BL13, BL23, and EX-B1. ..."
Zeng Q., Liu L. et al. (2024) Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture in Managing COPD: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2024;19:1721-1721. 🔗
Acupuncture-Related Therapy for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Narrative Review of Neuroimaging Studies.
"Acupuncture has been widely applied for treating knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Numerous studies have found that acupuncture can effectively alleviate KOA symptoms. With the advancement of neuroimaging techniques, integrating neuroimaging with in-depth investigations of acupuncture mechanisms has emerged as a hot topic in traditional Chinese medical neuroscience research. This review aimed to analyze the study ..."
Qu Y., Peng Y. et al. (2024) Acupuncture-Related Therapy for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Narrative Review of Neuroimaging Studies. J Pain Res. 2024;17:773-773. 🔗
Revealing the clinical effect and biological mechanism of acupuncture in COPD: A review.
"BACKGROUND: To provide new ideas for the clinical and mechanism research of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), this study systematically reviews clinical research and the progress of basic research of acupuncture in the treatment of COPD. METHODS: PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched using acupuncture and COPD ..."
Shi F., Cao J. et al. (2024) Revealing the clinical effect and biological mechanism of acupuncture in COPD: A review. Biomed Pharmacother. 2024;170:115926-115926. 🔗
Acupuncture for vitiligo: An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: This study included 10 SRs and assessed a total of 13 outcome measures, all of which were published before June 2023. Acupuncture therapy was more effective than control conditions for the treatment of Vitiligo. The AMSTAR-2 results indicated a critical deficiency in the methodological quality of all SRs, with items 7 and 16 demonstrating notably low quality. The reporting quality of the included SRs according to PRISMA was deemed unsatisfactory, with significant reporting flaws identified in the areas of Protocol and registration, Risk of bias across studies, Study selection, and Limitations. According to the ROBIS assessment, 5 out of the total number of SRs (50.00%) were found to have a high risk of bias. Out of the total of 62 outcomes evaluated using the GRADE framework, 9 outcomes (14.51%) exhibited high-quality evidence, 20 outcomes (32.26%) demonstrated moderate-quality evidence, 19 outcomes (30.65%) presented low-quality evidence, while 14 outcomes (22.58%) indicated very low-quality evidence. ..."
Zhao J., Gong X. et al. (2023) Acupuncture for vitiligo: An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analysis. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2023. 🔗
Acupuncture reduces mechanical ventilation time in critically ill patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized control trials.
"...RESULTS: A total of 10 clinical trials were included in this investigation. When comparing the performance of acupuncture-related interventions to that of the reported control interventions, the results of the meta-analysis revealed a significant reduction in the total number of MV days as well as the duration of ICU length of stay following acupuncture treatment (MD -2.06 [-3.33, -0.79] P = 0.001, I = 55 %, MD-1.26 [-2.00, -0.53] P = 0.0008, I = 77 %, respectively). A reduction in the total mortality was similarly observed (RR = 0.67 [0.47, 0.94] P = 0.02, I = 0 %). ..."
Ben-Arie E., Mayer P. et al. (2023) Acupuncture reduces mechanical ventilation time in critically ill patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized control trials. Explore (NY). 2023. 🔗
The Effects of Acupuncture on Crohn's Disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: A total of 12 studies were included. The effective rate (odds ratio [OR] 3.23, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.43, 7.30) for mild to moderate Crohn's disease patients showed a significant difference between the acupuncture with moxibustion group and the sham-acupuncture with sham-moxibustion group. CDAI change (mean difference [MD] -74.15, 95% CI -93.28, -55.01) for mild to moderate Crohn's disease showed a significant difference between the acupuncture with moxibustion group and the sham-acupuncture with sham-moxibustion group. ..."
Bae J., Kang S. et al. (2023) The Effects of Acupuncture on Crohn's Disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Pharmacopuncture. 2023;26(3):211-211. 🔗
Comprehensive review on sexual dimorphism to improve scalp acupuncture in nervous system disease.
"... RESULT: Furthermore, we creatively a new insight of SD-SA and provide the complete SD treatment cases on the basis of the existing SA in different kinds of diseases including stroke, migraine, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and depression. ..."
Wang C., Wang J. et al. (2023) Comprehensive review on sexual dimorphism to improve scalp acupuncture in nervous system disease. CNS Neurosci Ther. 2023. 🔗
Acupuncture-related therapies for protracted opioid abstinence syndrome:A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Twenty-eight trials met the inclusion criteria and provided data for the meta-analysis. A total of only 3 studies (11%) were judged to be low-risk overall due to various biases in them. Acupuncture-related therapy showed statistical differences in improving protracted withdrawal symptom scores compared with sham acupuncture (5 studies, Standard mean difference (SMD), -1.85, 95% CI [-3.21, -0.50], = 0.007), western medicine(7 studies, SMD, -0.72, 95% CI [-1.22, -0.21], = 0.005)and no treatment(3 studies, SMD,-2.26, 95% CI [-3.82, -0.69], = 0.005)with high heterogeneity. ..."
Ding L., Li C. et al. (2023) Acupuncture-related therapies for protracted opioid abstinence syndrome:A systematic review and meta-analysis. Integr Med Res. 2023;12(3):100976-100976. 🔗
Effect of acupressure in nausea and vomiting treatment during pregnancy: A meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: We included 33 trials and 3 390 patients in this meta-analysis. Acupressure was effective for women with nausea and vomiting during pregnancy (odds ratio (OR)= 4.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) [3.47, 6.68]; p<0.0001); it significantly reduced the nausea score of the Rhodes index (mean square deviation (MD): -3.21, 95% CI [-4.85, -1.57], Z = 3.83, p = 0.0001), modified Pregnancy Unique Quantification of Emesis and Nausea score (MD: -2.18, 95% CI [-3.21, -1.15], Z = 4.15, p<0.0001), and hospital stay (OR=-3.27, 95% CI [-6.18, -0.36]; p = 0.03) and improved quality of life (MD: -14.06,95% CI [- 17.31, -10.18], Z = 8.48, p<0.00001). However, no significant difference was observed in nursing satisfaction and anxiety scores (OR=4.13, 95% CI [0.89, 19.15]; p = 0.07) (MD: -13.26,95% CI [-32.04,5.53], Z = 1.38, p = 0.17). ..."
Gong J., Gu D. et al. (2023) Effect of acupressure in nausea and vomiting treatment during pregnancy: A meta-analysis. Explore (NY). 2023. 🔗
Research hotspots and trends on acupuncture therapy on vomiting from 1990 to 2022: A bibliometric analysis.
"...RESULTS: The earliest relevant paper was published in 1990. Streitberger, K was the most productive author (7 records) and had significant influence (225 reference times, H-Index = 7). The United States had the highest publication count (224 records) and received the most recognition (9719 reference times, H-Index = 52). MEDICINE had the highest number of outputs (34 records), while ANESTHESIA AND ANALGESIA was the most cited journal (1045 reference times). The institution with the most works was Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CDUTCM) (13 records), and the University of California, Los Angeles received the most citations (1252 reference times). Recent and future research hotspots included AT for postoperative vomiting and post-chemotherapy vomiting. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were the predominant study types. ..."
Tan M., Mo C. et al. (2023) Research hotspots and trends on acupuncture therapy on vomiting from 1990 to 2022: A bibliometric analysis. Complement Ther Med. 2023;76:102962-102962. 🔗
Comparative effectiveness of moxibustion and acupuncture for the management of osteoarthritis knee: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: 21 studies were included, of which, half were identified as having high risk of bias. The pooled SMD for the pain score was found to be -0.53 (95% CI: -0.91 to -0.15). In-depth analysis focusing on the kind of moxibustion indicated that fire needle moxibustion was more effective in pain reduction (SMD = -0.56; 95% CI: -1.10 to -0.01) compared to alternative moxibustion methods (SMD = -0.47; 95% CI: -0.80 to -0.13). The pooled RR for the success rate in treatment was 1.39 (95% CI: 1.19 to 1.62). Subgroup analysis demonstrated that fire needle moxibustion reported a superior success rate (RR = 1.43; 95% CI: 1.19 to 1.72) in comparison to other types of moxibustion (RR = 1.33; 95% CI: 1.02 to 1.74). ..."
Xin S., Liu J. et al. (2023) Comparative effectiveness of moxibustion and acupuncture for the management of osteoarthritis knee: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Heliyon. 2023;9(7):e17805-e17805. 🔗
Severe Adverse Events of Periocular Acupuncture: A Review of Cases.
"Acupuncture is recognized as a component of alternative medicine and is increasingly used worldwide. Many studies have shown the various effects of acupuncture around the eyes for ophthalmologic or nonophthalmologic conditions. For ophthalmologic conditions, the effect of acupuncture on dry eye syndrome, glaucoma, myopia, amblyopia, ophthalmoplegia, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, blepharospasm, and blepharoptosis has been reported. ..."
Lee S., Wu J. et al. (2023) Severe Adverse Events of Periocular Acupuncture: A Review of Cases. Korean J Ophthalmol. 2023;37(3):255-255. 🔗
Adverse effects associated with acupuncture therapies: An evidence mapping from 535 systematic reviews.
"...RESULTS: A total of 535 SRs involving 33 adverse reactions were included. Among them, 22 studies were rated as high quality, 28 as moderate, 106 as low, and the rest were of critically-low quality. Numerous adverse effects were described in the studies, including syncope (86 SRs), organ or tissue injury (233 SRs), systemic reactions (113 SRs), infection (19 SRs), and other adverse events (373 SRs). Importantly, these adverse reactions were mainly associated with 19 acupuncture techniques, including electroacupuncture (n = 67), manual acupuncture (n = 47) and acupoint catgut embedding (n = 41). Furthermore, the 535 SRs described 23 diseases, among which symptoms, signs or clinical findings (83 SRs), mental, behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorders (67 SRs), and diseases of the nervous system (66 SRs) had the highest incidence. ..."
Xu M., Yang C. et al. (2023) Adverse effects associated with acupuncture therapies: An evidence mapping from 535 systematic reviews. Chin Med. 2023;18(1):38-38. 🔗
Advances in the prevention and treatment of postoperative delirium by acupuncture: A review.
"Postoperative delirium is a common postoperative complication of neurocognitive dysfunction, especially in elderly surgical patients. Postoperative delirium not only damages patients' recovery but also increases social costs. Therefore, its prevention and treatment has essential clinical and social significance. However, due to its intricate pathogenesis and limited pharmacological interventions, the effective prevention and treatment of ..."
Yang J., Wang L. et al. (2023) Advances in the prevention and treatment of postoperative delirium by acupuncture: A review. Medicine (Baltimore). 2023;102(14):e33473-e33473. 🔗
Efficacy and safety of acupuncture and moxibustion for primary tinnitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: We included 34 RCTs involving 3086 patients. Results indicated that compared with the controls, acupuncture and moxibustion resulted in significantly lower scores on the THI, achieved a significantly higher efficacy rate, reduced scores on TEQ, PTA, VAS, HAMA and HAMD. The meta-analysis revealed that acupuncture and moxibustion have a good safety profile in the treatment of primary tinnitus. ..."
Wu Q., Wang J. et al. (2023) Efficacy and safety of acupuncture and moxibustion for primary tinnitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Am J Otolaryngol. 2023;44(3):103821-103821. 🔗
Effect of acupuncture in eczema: An overview of systematic reviews.
"...RESULTS: A total of 7 SRs/MAs were included. According to AMSTAR-2, all the SRs/MAs included were categorized as critically low-quality. According to the PRISMA 2020 checklist, none of the reviews completed all the 27 items, thus their compliance was relatively weak. On the base of GRADE system, 2 of the 12 outcomes were rated as moderate, and 5 outcomes were rated as low-quality, while the others were regarded as very low-quality. ..."
Li X., Liang L. et al. (2023) Effect of acupuncture in eczema: An overview of systematic reviews. Complement Ther Med. 2023;73:102925-102925. 🔗
Role of GRPR in Acupuncture Intervention in the "Itch-scratch Vicious Cycle" Spinal Circuit of Chronic Pruritus.
"Many previous studies have shown the potential antipruritic effect of acupuncture. This paper reviews the antipruritic mechanisms of acupuncture according to these aspects: sample characteristics, detail of intervention, and effects evaluation. The majority of research on acupuncture's antipruritic effect has focused on primary afferents of the peripheral mechanism. Relatively few studies, however, have addressed ..."
Liu J., Li X. et al. (2023) Role of GRPR in Acupuncture Intervention in the "Itch-scratch Vicious Cycle" Spinal Circuit of Chronic Pruritus. Chin Med. 2023;18(1):2-2. 🔗
Effect of Moxibustion on Inflammatory Cytokines for Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression.
"...RESULTS: Thirty RCTs measuring interleukin (IL-) 1, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12, IL-17, IL-23, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-) α were included in this meta-analysis. Compared to controls: single moxibustion could effectively decrease levels IL-6 and IL-23 (SMD, -0.71, 95% CI: -1.25 to -0.17, = 0.01; SMD, -1.61, 95% CI: -2.20 to -1.03, < 0.01, respectively); combined moxibustion had significant effects on IL-1, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12, IL-17, and TNF-α ( < 0.05). Overall, for LBP, single or combined moxibustion could effectively down-regulate levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines ( = 0.007 and < 0.00001, respectively). For safety of moxibustion, the incidence rate of side effects was similar to that of controls (RD, -0.01, 95% CI: -0.02 to 0.01, = 0.59). Sensitivity analysis showed that the pooled estimates were robust, and publication bias analysis showed there was a significant small study effect (Egger's test = 0.0000). High statistical heterogeneity existed between included RCTs, meta-regression showed there was no potential factor explaining the source of heterogeneity. ..."
Zhao Z., Li J. et al. (2023) Effect of Moxibustion on Inflammatory Cytokines for Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression. Ther Clin Risk Manag. 2023;19:811-811. 🔗
Revealing the biological mechanism of acupuncture in alleviating excessive inflammatory responses and organ damage in sepsis: a systematic review.
"Sepsis is a systemic inflammation caused by a maladjusted host response to infection. In severe cases, it can cause multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) and even endanger life. Acupuncture is widely accepted and applied in the treatment of sepsis, and breakthroughs have been made regarding its mechanism of action in recent years. In this ..."
Yang L., Zhou D. et al. (2023) Revealing the biological mechanism of acupuncture in alleviating excessive inflammatory responses and organ damage in sepsis: a systematic review. Front Immunol. 2023;14:1242640-1242640. 🔗
Possible Effects of Acupuncture in Poststroke Aphasia.
"Neural plasticity promotes the reorganization of language networks and is an essential recovery mechanism for poststroke aphasia (PSA). Neuroplasticity may be a pivotal bridge to elucidate the potential recovery mechanisms of acupuncture for aphasia. Therefore, understanding the neuroplasticity mechanism of acupuncture in PSA is crucial. However, the underlying therapeutic mechanism of neuroplasticity in PSA ..."
Zhuo B., Deng S. et al. (2023) Possible Effects of Acupuncture in Poststroke Aphasia. Behav Neurol. 2023:9445381-9445381. 🔗
Functional magnetic resonance imaging providing the brain effect mechanism of acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for depression.
"The efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of depression has been fully recognized internationally. However, its central mechanism is still not developed into a unified standard, and it is generally believed that the central mechanism is regulation of the cortical striatum thalamic neural pathway of the limbic system. In recent years, some ..."
Wong K., Xu J. et al. (2023) Functional magnetic resonance imaging providing the brain effect mechanism of acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for depression. Front Neurol. 2023;14:1151421-1151421. 🔗
Role of acupuncture in critically ill patients: A systematic review.
"Acupuncture is part of a complex medical approach used in China for about 2000 years, known as Traditional Chinese Medicine, whose central assumption is that health occurs when the patterned energy flow throughout the body is balanced. Within this paradigm, acute illness occurs when a major state of imbalance or disruption arises, and the use ..."
Formenti P., Piuri G. et al. (2023) Role of acupuncture in critically ill patients: A systematic review. J Tradit Complement Med. 2023;13(1):62-62. 🔗
Acupuncture treatment of facial spasm: An overview of systematic reviews.
"...RESULTS: A total of 8 SRs/meta-analyses were included. All the SRs were published between 2012-2022. Based on AMSTAR-2, 8 SRs were rated critically low quality. By using the ROBIS tool, 6 SRs were rated low-risk bias. With the PRISMA-A checklist, we found 2 out of 8 SRs were found adequately reported over 70%. With the GRADE system, no high-quality evidence was found, and only two outcomes provided moderate-quality evidence. Among the downgraded factors, the risk of bias within the original trials was ranked first, followed by publication bias, inconsistency, and imprecision. ..."
Gong Y., Li X. et al. (2022) Acupuncture treatment of facial spasm: An overview of systematic reviews. Medicine (Baltimore). 2022;101(50):e32182-e32182. 🔗
Safety of acupuncture by Korean Medicine Doctors: a prospective, practice-based survey of 37,490 consultations
"Background To evaluate safety of acupuncture treatment by Korean Medicine Doctors (KMDs), a prospective, practice-based survey on adverse events (AEs) associated with acupuncture was conducted. Methods From July 2016 to October 2017, KMDs were invited to participate in an online survey. Frequency was calculated as the number of AEs per 10,000 treatments; severity was assessed with the ..."
Won J., Lee J. et al. (2022) Safety of acupuncture by Korean Medicine Doctors: a prospective, practice-based survey of 37,490 consultations BMC Complement Med Ther. 2022;22. 🔗
Use of Acupuncture for Adult Health Conditions, 2013 to 2021: A Systematic Review.
"IMPORTANCE: Acupuncture is a popular treatment that has been advocated for dozens of adult health conditions and has a vast evidence base. OBJECTIVE: To map the systematic reviews, conclusions, and certainty or quality of evidence for outcomes of acupuncture as a treatment for adult health conditions. EVIDENCE REVIEW: Computerized search of PubMed and 4 other ..."
Allen J., Mak S. et al. (2022) Use of Acupuncture for Adult Health Conditions, 2013 to 2021: A Systematic Review. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(11):e2243665-e2243665. 🔗
Acupuncture for uremic pruritus: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"Uremic pruritus (UP) is a chronic disease that can seriously affect the quality of life of dialysis patients. Acupuncture is a non-medication therapy that has been used to treat pruritus disorders. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for the treatment of UP. A total of 9 Chinese and English ..."
Zhang L., Li Y. et al. (2022) Acupuncture for uremic pruritus: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2022. 🔗
Filiform needle acupuncture for allergic rhinitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Thirty studies were included in this review. Compared with sham acupuncture, FNA significantly reduced the symptom score (SMD: -0.29 [-0.43, -0.15]), AR's impact on QoL (SMD: -0.23 [-0.37, -0.08]) and medication score (SMD: -0.3 [-0.49, -0.11]). Compared with no treatment, FNA dramatically reduced the symptom score (SMD: -0.8 [-1.2, -0.39]) and AR's impact on QoL (SMD: -0.82 [-1.13, -0.52]). There were no increased rates of adverse events with FNA compared to sham acupuncture and no treatment. FNA increased patient satisfaction and may be cost-effective. Most pieces of evidence from the above two comparisons were of high confidence. Moreover, FNA significantly outperformed conventional medication in reducing the symptom score (SMD: -0.48 [-0.85, -0.1]) and displayed a lower rate of adverse events, but the quality of evidence was very low. ..."
Du S., Guo W. et al. (2022) Filiform needle acupuncture for allergic rhinitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Integr Med. 2022. 🔗
Effects of Acupuncture on Adverse Events in Colonoscopy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"...RESULTS: The results showed that the incidence of adverse events (odds ratio [OR] 0.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.16-0.43, P = 0.00, I = 25%), patients' pain score (mean difference [MD] - 1.03, 95% CI - 1.45 to - 0.62, P = 0.00, I = 94%), and time to insert the colonoscope (MD = - 2.54, 95% CI - 4.96 to - 0.13, P = 0.04, I = 0%) were significantly lower in the treatment group than in the control group. Compared with the control group, the satisfaction rate of patients (OR 2.53, 95% CI 1.56-4.10, P = 0.00, I = 47%) in the treatment group was significantly improved. There was no significant between-group difference in patients' anxiety score, the total detection time, and propofol dosage. ..."
Wang J., Xia Q. et al. (2022) Effects of Acupuncture on Adverse Events in Colonoscopy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Pain Ther. 2022. 🔗
Evidence mapping and overview of systematic reviews of the effects of acupuncture therapies.
"...RESULTS: We reanalysed the selected MAs if new primary studies were added. We used random-effect model to calculate the overall effect. RESULTS: Our search identified 120 SRs published in the last 5 years addressing acupuncture therapies across 12 therapeutic areas and 77 diseases and conditions. The SRs included 205 outcomes and involved 138 995 participants from 1402 RCTs. We constructed 77 evidence matrices, including 120 SRs and their included RCTs in the Epistemonikos database. Seventy-seven SRs represented the effect estimate of acupuncture therapies. Finally, we system summarised the areas of possible underutilisation of acupuncture therapies (high or moderate certainty evidence of large or moderate effects), and the areas of warranting additional investigation of acupuncture therapies (low or very low certainty evidence of moderate or large effects). ..."
Lu L., Zhang Y. et al. (2022) Evidence mapping and overview of systematic reviews of the effects of acupuncture therapies. BMJ Open. 2022;12(6):e056803. 🔗
Patients' Expectancies to Acupuncture: A Systematic Review.
"This systematic review aimed to document and describe how and when to assess patients' expectancies to acupuncture and the relationship between patients' expectancies and clinical effects. Three English databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and EMBASE, and four Chinese databases, including the Chinese Biomedicine Literature Database, Chinese Journal Full-text Database, Chinese ..."
Yang X., Wang T. et al. (2022) Patients' Expectancies to Acupuncture: A Systematic Review. J Integr Complement Med. 2022;28(3):202-217. 🔗
Acupuncture for multiple sclerosis: A literature review.
"...RESULTS: Totally, out of 75 studied articles, 31 were included in this research. The advantages of acupuncture are mainly reflected in regulating neuro-immune system, improving the quality of life, reducing fatigue, improving the bladder function, reducing the spasm and pain of the limbs, delaying the progression of the disease, and reducing relapses. ..."
Khodaie F., Abbasi N. et al. (2022) Acupuncture for multiple sclerosis: A literature review. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2022;60:103715. 🔗
Moxibustion for diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
"...RESULTS: Eleven RCTs including 725 participants meet the inclusion criteria. Compared with other positive treatments (Western medicine, TCM prescription, and acupuncture), moxibustion treatment had superior effects against IBS-D according to the meta-analysis. ..."
Dai Y., Weng H. et al. (2022) Moxibustion for diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2022;46:101532. 🔗
Changes of local microenvironment and systemic immunity after acupuncture stimulation during inflammation: A literature review of animal studies.
"An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the underlying mechanisms by which acupuncture therapy mediates both local and systemic immunomodulation. However, the connection between alterations in the local microenvironment and the resulting change in systemic immunity remains unclear. In this review, we focus on cell-specific changes in local immune responses following acupuncture stimulation and ..."
Yu W., Park J. et al. (2022) Changes of local microenvironment and systemic immunity after acupuncture stimulation during inflammation: A literature review of animal studies. Front Neurol. 2022;13:1086195-1086195. 🔗
Clinical Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials.
"...RESULTS: A total of eleven RCTs involving 796 patients with RA met the established inclusion criteria. This systematic review indicated the efficacy of acupuncture as an adjunctive treatment for patients with RA. Invasive acupuncture could reduce significantly in pain (MD = -1.00, 95% CI: -1.96 to -0.05, =0.040), health assessment questionnaire (HAQ, MD = -0.20, 95% CI: -0.30 to -0.11, < 0.001), physician global assessment (PhGA, MD = -0.98, 95% CI: -1.23 to -0.72, < 0.001), tender joint count (TJC, MD = -1.24, 95% CI: -2.11 to -0.37, =0.005), C-reactive protein (CRP, MD = -1.81, 95% CI: -3.32 to -0.29, =0.019), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR, MD = -3.03, 95% CI: -5.80 to -0.26, =0.032), while compared to control group. Laser acupuncture could reduce HAQ (MD = -0.15, 95% CI: -0.28 to -0.01, =0.034), the RA quality of life questionnaire (RAQoL, MD = -2.32, 95% CI: -4.40 to -0.25, =0.028), CRP (MD = -35.24, 95% CI: -36.49 to -33.99, < 0.001), and interleukin-6 (IL-6, MD = -29.63, 95% CI: -49.34 to -9.92, =0.003), while compared to control group. No adverse events associated with acupuncture were reported. ..."
Li H., Man S. et al. (2022) Clinical Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis: Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022:5264977-5264977. 🔗
Comparison of Efficacy of Acupuncture-Related Therapy in the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"...RESULTS: A total of 32 RCTs were included, including 2,115 RA patients. The results of network meta-analysis were as follows: in terms of improving DAS28 score, Electro-acupuncture + DMARDs has the best efficacy. In terms of improving VAS score, Fire Needle + DMARDs showed the best efficacy. In terms of improving morning stiffness time, acupuncture-related therapies combined with DMARDs were not better than DMARDs alone in improving morning stiffness time in RA patients. In terms of reducing CRP and ESR, Fire Needle + DMARDs showed the best efficacy. In terms of reducing RF, Moxibustion + DMARDs has the best efficacy. ..."
Wan R., Fan Y. et al. (2022) Comparison of Efficacy of Acupuncture-Related Therapy in the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Network Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Front Immunol. 2022;13:829409-829409. 🔗
A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture Treatment for Oral Ulcer
"Background Oral ulcer (OU) is a common oral mucosal disease manifested with obvious pain. In some studies, the efficacy of acupuncture in OU has been confirmed, but systematic reviews and meta-analyses for them are lacking. Our aim is to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of OU. Methods We searched the literature ..."
Yan H., Chen T. et al. (2022) A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture Treatment for Oral Ulcer Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022. 🔗
Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Chronic Urticaria: A Critical Overview of Systematic Reviews.
"...Results: In total, 23 SRs, including a total of 11 outcome indicators, were published before October 2021. The AMSTAR-2 results showed that the methodological quality of all SRs was critically low; items 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, and 16 were found to have particularly low quality. For PRISMA, the reporting quality of the included SRs was unsatisfactory, and major reporting flaws were observed in the search strategy, synthesis method, certainly assessment, reporting biases, registrations, and financial support of the included SRs. For ROBIS, 22 SRs (95.65%) had a high risk of bias. Among the 55 outcomes assessed using the GRADE framework, there were 3 (5.45%) outcomes with moderate-quality evidence, 6 (10.91%) outcomes with low-quality evidence, and 46 (83.64%) outcomes with very low-quality evidence. We found the moderate quality of evidence indicating that the total effective rate and curing rate of the acupuncture group were higher than those of the western medicine group, and the recurrence rate was lower than that of the western medicine group. ..."
Shi Y., Cao W. et al. (2022) Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Chronic Urticaria: A Critical Overview of Systematic Reviews. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022:2094589. 🔗
The Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Neurodermatitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: The meta-analysis included 8 studies with a total of 728 participants, including 369 patients in the treatment group and 359 patients in the control group. Compared with conventional treatment, acupuncture significantly increased the effective rate (OR: 2.90, 95% CI: 1.78∼4.75; < 0.001) and decreased the recurrence rate after treatment (OR: 0.26, 95% CI: 0.12∼0.59; =0.001). Meanwhile, analysis of disease symptom scores showed that acupuncture group had a greater impact (OR: 3.51, 95% CI: 2.12∼4.91; < 0.00001). Furthermore, no significant difference in the adverse reaction rate was observed. ..."
Yang L., Li X. et al. (2022) The Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Neurodermatitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022:8182958. 🔗
The Clinical Observation of Acupuncture Combined With Antiemetic Drugs in the Prevention and Treatment of CINV in Breast Cancer Patients.
"...Results: During the whole observation period, compared with the control group, the frequency of nausea and vomiting was decreased in the acupuncture group (P=0.034). And the ECOG-PS score in the acupuncture group was significantly improved (P=0.004). In addition, the adverse events, such as abdominal (12.2% vs. 5.0%, P=0.252), distention (19.5% vs. 5.0%, P=0.049), and diarrhea (9.7% vs. 0, P=0.044), were decreased by acupuncture. ..."
Kong F., Wang Z. et al. (2022) The Clinical Observation of Acupuncture Combined With Antiemetic Drugs in the Prevention and Treatment of CINV in Breast Cancer Patients. Front Oncol. 2022;12:888651. 🔗
Effect of Acupuncture on Pain, Fatigue, Sleep, Physical Function, Stiffness, Well-Being, and Safety in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: A total of 13 articles were searched, of which 12 were analyzed quantitatively. Our meta-analysis found that acupuncture could alleviate pain (SMD: -0.42, 95% CI, -0.66, -0.17, <0.001, I=58%) and improve well-being (SMD: -0.86, 95% CI, -1.49, 0.24, P=0.007, I=85%) at post-treatment. In addition, acupuncture showed long-term effects on reducing pain (=0.03) and improving well-being (<0.001). No evidence that acupuncture works on fatigue, sleep quality, physical function, or stiffness was found. No serious adverse events were detected in acupuncture treatment. ..."
Zheng C. & Zhou T. (2022) Effect of Acupuncture on Pain, Fatigue, Sleep, Physical Function, Stiffness, Well-Being, and Safety in Fibromyalgia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Pain Res. 2022;15:315-329. 🔗
A Review on the Immunomodulatory Mechanism of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
"Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease with a high prevalence and canceration rate. The immune disorder is one of the recognized mechanisms. Acupuncture is widely used to treat patients with IBD. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have proven the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of IBD, and ..."
Liu Z., Jiao Y. et al. (2022) A Review on the Immunomodulatory Mechanism of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2022:8528938. 🔗
Comparison of Efficacy between Acupuncture Therapies in Improving Sacroiliac Joint Malposition: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: A total of 10 randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) with 1019 participants were included. Their overall quality of methodology was not high, and there may be publication bias. Meta-analysis showed that the total effective rate of the treatment group was higher than that of the control group (OR = 2.74, 95% CI 2.00 to 3.74, < 0.00001). The treatment group was better than the control group in improving VAS score (WMD = -1.56, 95% CI -2.18 to -0.94, < 0.00001). The ODI score of the treatment group was lower than that of the control group (WMD = -6.04, 95% CI -7.05 to -5.02, < 0.00001). With the improvement of the JOA score, the difference of iliac transverse diameter of sacroiliac joint dislocation and the index of sacroiliac joint malposition in the treatment group were better than those in the control group ( < 0.05). There was no significant heterogeneity among the studies. ..."
Liu L., Pan L. et al. (2022) Comparison of Efficacy between Acupuncture Therapies in Improving Sacroiliac Joint Malposition: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Biomed Res Int. 2022:9485056. 🔗
The Efficacy of Acupuncture on Foot and Ankle for Pain Intensity, Functional Status, and General Quality of Life in Adults: A Systematic Review.
"To assess the effect of acupuncture on foot and ankle pain intensity, functional status, quality of life, and incidence of adverse events in adults. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were obtained from a systematic search of 6 major English databases, and a manual search of relevant systematic reviews using Google Scholar. RCTs that compared acupuncture with ..."
Trinh K., Belski N. et al. (2021) The Efficacy of Acupuncture on Foot and Ankle for Pain Intensity, Functional Status, and General Quality of Life in Adults: A Systematic Review. Med Acupunct. 2021;33(6):386-395. 🔗
Acupuncture: A therapeutic approach against acne.
"Acne is a common but chronic skin disease that influence large population especially juvenile. Acne can continue, begin, or grow into severe form in adult age, affecting face, back, and chest. It may be a serious issue if not cared or treated timely. Even if acne got treated it leaves a persistent scar, which ..."
Chun-Yan C., Guang-Yao X. et al. (2021) Acupuncture: A therapeutic approach against acne. J Cosmet Dermatol. 2021;20(12):3829-3838. 🔗
Patient- and Therapist-Related Risk Factors for Adverse Events in Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Japan: Multicenter Survey of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Teaching Clinics
"...Results: The analysis included 615 patients and 113 therapists. A total of 421 AEs occurred in a total of 4,369 sessions (9.6%). The number of sessions and number of AEs were significantly and positively correlated with patients (r = 0.47, P < 0.001) and therapists (r = 0.65, P < 0.001). Logistic analysis identified patient sex (adjusted odds ratio: 1.78, 95% confidence interval: [1.39–2.30]), liver disease (0.40, [0.19–0.84]), and years of clinical experience (to a cutoff of 2 or fewer years, 2–4 years: 0.65, [0.48–0.88], 5–9 years: 0.62, [0.44–0.87], 10 years or more: 0.50, [0.37–0.68]) as significant variables. ..."
Uehara A., Yoshimoto T. et al. (2021) Patient- and Therapist-Related Risk Factors for Adverse Events in Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Japan: Multicenter Survey of Acupuncture and Moxibustion Teaching Clinics Med Acupunct. 2021;33(6):435-442. 🔗
Efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy for psoriasis: an overview of systematic reviews.
"...RESULTS: After screening, seven SRs/MAs met the inclusion criteria, including two English and five Chinese articles. All of the SRs were published between 2015 and 2020. Based on AMSTAR-2, the quality of all SRs was rated as dangerously low. Using the PRISMA-A checklist, major reporting flaws were observed in the financial statements, protocols, and registrations of the included literature. According to the ROBIS tool, two SRs/MAs were classed as low bias risk. Using the GRADE tool, this review contained 27 outcomes, with only one being classified as high-quality evidence, seven moderate-quality evidences, and 19 as low-quality evidence. The present research results advocated acupuncture therapy as a supplementary treatment for psoriasis patients; however, the evidence should still be treated with caution due to certain limitations. ..."
Jing M., Shi L. et al. (2021) Efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy for psoriasis: an overview of systematic reviews. Ann Palliat Med. 2021;10(10):10804-10820. 🔗
Acupuncture-related adverse events: systematic review and meta-analyses of prospective clinical studies.
"...RESULTS: A total of 7679 publications were identified. Twenty-two articles reporting on 21 studies were included. Meta-analyses suggest at least one AE occurring in 9.31% (95% CI 5.10% to 14.62%, 11 studies) of patients undergoing an acupuncture series and in 7.57% (95% CI 1.43% to 17.95%, 5 studies) of treatments. Summary risk estimates for SAEs were 1.01 (95% CI 0.23 to 2.33, 11 studies) per 10 000 patients and 7.98 (95% CI 1.39 to 20.00, 14 studies) per one million treatments, for AEs requiring treatment 1.14 (95% CI 0.00 to 7.37, 8 studies) per 1000 patients. Heterogeneity was substantial (I >80%). On average, 9.4 AEs occurred in 100 treatments. Half of the AEs were bleeding, pain or flare at the needle site that are argued to represent intended acupuncture reaction. AE definitions and assessments varied largely. ..."
Bäumler P., Zhang W. et al. (2021) Acupuncture-related adverse events: systematic review and meta-analyses of prospective clinical studies. BMJ Open. 2021;11(9):e045961. 🔗
Correction of Breech Presentation with Moxibustion and Acupuncture: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"Acupuncture-type interventions (such as moxibustion and acupuncture) at Bladder 67 (BL67, Zhiyin point) have been proposed to have positive effects on breech presentation. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of moxibustion and acupuncture in correcting breech presentation. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register ..."
Liao J., Shao S. et al. (2021) Correction of Breech Presentation with Moxibustion and Acupuncture: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Healthcare (Basel). 2021;9(6). 🔗
Healthcare Professionals' Attitudes to Integration of Acupuncture in Western Medicine: A Mixed-Method Systematic Review.
"...RESULTS: Twenty-six studies comprising 19 survey and seven interview studies were identified, with 24 articles (92%) reporting positive attitudes, supporting the integration of acupuncture into Western medicine. Enablers identified were prior positive experience, belief in the treatment's efficacy, and patient demand. Barriers were lack of evidentiary knowledge or experience; lack of resources such as time, providers, and funding; and paradigm differences. Twenty studies (77%) focused on medical doctors or medical student perceptions. A conceptual framework for implementing and integrating acupuncture into Western medicine is proposed. ..."
Zhang N., Vesty G. et al. (2021) Healthcare Professionals' Attitudes to Integration of Acupuncture in Western Medicine: A Mixed-Method Systematic Review. Pain Manag Nurs. 2021. 🔗
Role of Acupuncture in the Treatment of COPD: An Overview of Systematic Reviews
"Background Since consistent evidence on the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is not available, this overview aims to summarize and critically evaluate the methodological and evidence quality of systematic reviews (SRs) on this topic. Methods Eight electronic databases were searched to identify relevant SRs of the use ..."
Chun L., Li X. et al. (2021) Role of Acupuncture in the Treatment of COPD: An Overview of Systematic Reviews Int J Gen Med. 2021;14:1079-1092. 🔗
Lifestyle and Health Behavior Change in Traditional Acupuncture Practice: A Systematic Critical Interpretive Synthesis.
"Behavioral factors are the leading cause of ill-health worldwide. Diet, physical activity, smoking, and alcohol consumption are the focus of public health targets on promotion of healthy behavior. The science of behavior change is rapidly growing and has largely evolved within mainstream health care treatments. Traditional Chinese Medicine includes self-care practices that encourage healthy ..."
Pinto J., Bradbury K. et al. (2021) Lifestyle and Health Behavior Change in Traditional Acupuncture Practice: A Systematic Critical Interpretive Synthesis. J Altern Complement Med. 2021;27(3):238-254. 🔗
Dropouts in randomized clinical trials of Korean medicine interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Forty-nine published studies were included in the review. The median dropout rate was 10% in the treatment group (interquartile range 6.7%, 17.0%) and 14% in the control group (interquartile range 5.4%, 16.3%) and was highest in acupuncture studies (12%), followed by herbal medicine (10%), moxibustion (8%), and cupping (7%). Loss to follow-up was the most common reason for dropping out. The risk difference for dropping out between the intervention and control groups was estimated to be 0.01 (95% confidence interval - 0.02, 0.03) in KM intervention studies. ..."
Jeon S., Nam D. et al. (2021) Dropouts in randomized clinical trials of Korean medicine interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Trials. 2021;22(1):176. 🔗
Effectiveness of electroacupuncture as a treatment for osteoporosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: In total, 11 RCTs involving 731 participants were included for further meta-analysis. The meta-analysis showed that the use of electroacupuncture as a sole treatment or as an adjunct to other treatments could relieve OP-related pain compared with medications [mean difference (MD) = -0.58, 95% confidence interval (CI); MD = -0.97 to -0.19, P = .003, I2 = 88%; MD = -1.47, 95% CI = -2.14 to -0.79, P < .001, I2 = 96%). Meanwhile, the results showed a favorable effect of electroacupuncture on decreasing serum beta-CTX levels. However, there were no significant differences in serum PINP levels and BMD of lumbar. Shenshu (BL23) was the most frequent acupoint stimulation among these studies. ..."
Fan L., Wu Z. et al. (2021) Effectiveness of electroacupuncture as a treatment for osteoporosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Medicine (Baltimore). 2021;100(3):e24259. 🔗
Acupuncture for the Treatment of Itch: Peripheral and Central Mechanisms.
"Despite the widespread clinical use of acupuncture in the treatment of pruritus caused by psoriasis, urticaria, uremic, and other diseases, insights into the mechanism of action of acupuncture are still emerging. For the above reasons, a beneficial effect of acupuncture on pruritus was not recommended or reported in recent clinical practice guidelines. Acupuncture is ..."
Tang Y., Cheng S. et al. (2021) Acupuncture for the Treatment of Itch: Peripheral and Central Mechanisms. Front Neurosci. 2021;15:786892. 🔗
Acupuncture for Opioid Dependence Patients Receiving Methadone Maintenance Treatment: A Network Meta-Analysis.
"Opioid dependence has been a threat to public health for hundreds of years. With the increasing number of studies on acupuncture-related therapies for opioid dependence patients receiving methadone maintenance treatment (MMT), its effect of acupuncture therapy in treating MMT patients remains controversial. Therefore, we conducted a multiple-treatments meta-analysis, and incorporated both direct and indirect ..."
Wen H., Chen R. et al. (2021) Acupuncture for Opioid Dependence Patients Receiving Methadone Maintenance Treatment: A Network Meta-Analysis. Front Psychiatry. 2021;12:767613. 🔗
Effects of Warm Needle Acupuncture on Temporomandibular Joint Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"...Results: The meta-analysis included 10 studies with a total of 670 patients, which included 340 patients in the experimental group and 330 patients in the control group. The data in this review showed that WNA is superior to treatments such as acupuncture alone, acupuncture therapy combined with TDP, drug therapy, and ultrasonic therapy in terms of effective rate (RR = 1.20; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.35; and = 0.003) and cure rate (RR = 1.82; 95% CI, 1.46 to 2.28; and < 0.00001) for the treatment of TMD. ..."
Liu G., Gao Z. et al. (2021) Effects of Warm Needle Acupuncture on Temporomandibular Joint Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021:6868625. 🔗
Acupuncture for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: An Overview of Systematic Reviews.
"...Results: A total of 14 SRs and MAs were included. The evaluation results of the AMSTAR 2 tool showed that the methodological quality of all the 14 SRs and MAs was critically low. The principal causes are the lack of a pre-registration proposal and a list of excluded studies and justify the exclusions, the report on the sources of funding, and the reasons for the study designs for inclusion. The results of the GRADE evaluation showed 25 of 46 outcomes were very low-level evidence. Seventeen were of low level, four were of moderate level and none were of high level. Most outcomes were downgraded in quality of evidence mainly because of publication bias and imprecision. ..."
Chen J., Liu A. et al. (2021) Acupuncture for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. Int J Gen Med. 2021;14:8481-8494. 🔗
Cupping Therapy for Migraine: A PRISMA-Compliant Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"...Results: 218 studies were identified, and 6 RCTs were enrolled in this review. In comparison to drugs, wet cupping showed a higher total effective rate (TER). In the dry cupping plus acupuncture, the result of TER showed more effectiveness (RR 1.05, 95% CI 0.99 to 1.12, =0.13) compared with acupuncture alone, but there was no statistically significant difference. In qualitative analysis, the results showed wet cupping plus drugs treatment could quickly relieve pain and significantly improve patients' quality of life and wet cupping could reduce headache pain. ..."
Seo J., Chu H. et al. (2021) Cupping Therapy for Migraine: A PRISMA-Compliant Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021:7582581. 🔗
Trends of Acupuncture Therapy on Depression From 2011 to 2020: A Bibliometric Analysis.
"The purpose of this study was to explore the current status and trends of acupuncture for depression in the last decade and provide new insights for researchers in future studies. The articles regarding acupuncture treatment for depression published between 2011 and 2020 were extracted from the Web of Science Core Collection. We used CiteSpace to analyze ..."
Xiang H., Li J. et al. (2021) Trends of Acupuncture Therapy on Depression From 2011 to 2020: A Bibliometric Analysis. Front Psychol. 2021;12:721872. 🔗
A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy in the Treatment of Migraine from 2000 to 2020.
"...Results: A total of 572 publications were included in the final analysis. The total number of publications has continued to increase with some fluctuations over the past 20 years. The most productive country and institution in this field were the USA, and Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, respectively. The most active and cited authors were Liang FR and Linde K, respectively. was the most productive, cited, and co-cited journal. The Linde K (2005) had the highest co-citation, citation number and centrality. The keywords "migraine" ranked first in frequency. The common type of migraine (tension-type headache), research method (randomized controlled trial, multicenter, double-blind), acupuncture's role (prophylactic, quality of life, pain), and evaluation (meta-analysis, systematic review) were the hotspots and frontier trends of acupuncture therapy on migraine between 2000 and 2020. ..."
Zhao T., Guo J. et al. (2021) A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends of Acupuncture Therapy in the Treatment of Migraine from 2000 to 2020. J Pain Res. 2021;14:1399-1414. 🔗
Guidance for Acupuncture Robot with Potentially Utilizing Medical Robotic Technologies.
"Acupuncture is gaining increasing attention and recognition all over the world. However, a lot of physical labor is paid by acupuncturists. It is natural to resort to a robot which can improve the accuracy as well as the efficacy of therapy. Several teams have separately developed real acupuncture robots or related technologies and even ..."
Xu T. & Xia Y. (2021) Guidance for Acupuncture Robot with Potentially Utilizing Medical Robotic Technologies. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021:8883598. 🔗
Acupuncture Treatment for Cough-Variant Asthma: A Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: A total of 11 randomized controlled clinical studies were screened and included, comprising 929 patients. The results of the meta-analysis showed that, compared with the control group, acupuncture intervention on CVA could enhance the total clinical effectiveness rate, reduce the relapse rate of drug withdrawal, relieve symptoms of cough, phlegm, and diaphragmatic congestion, and improve lung function-related indicators and immune inflammation indicators. There were statistically significant differences in all efficacy evaluation criteria. ..."
Xiong J., Qi W. et al. (2021) Acupuncture Treatment for Cough-Variant Asthma: A Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021:6694936. 🔗
Research Trends from 2010 to 2020 for Pain Treatment with Acupuncture: A Bibliometric Analysis.
"...Results: The search finally included 4227 related studies. Results show that the number of annual publications has been increasing gradually. (366) was the most productive journal, while (2270/0.04) ranked first in terms of frequency and centrality of cited journals, respectively. Among countries/institutions, the China (1252) and the Kyung Hee University (228) ranked first. Lee MS (51 articles) was the most effective author while MacPherson H (577) was the most cited author. The most frequently cited reference was a systematic review of individual patient data on acupuncture for chronic pain (322). "Burden" was identified as a frontier research item for 2017-2020. ..."
Gao Z., Zhang J. et al. (2021) Research Trends from 2010 to 2020 for Pain Treatment with Acupuncture: A Bibliometric Analysis. J Pain Res. 2021;14:941-952. 🔗
Acupuncture in Dermatology: An Update to a Systematic Review.
"Acupuncture is an important Traditional Chinese Medicine modality based on the fundamental theory that disease is caused by disruptions in the body's qi. Understanding the use of acupuncture in dermatology is important due to the rising prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine use. A systematic review published in 2015 found that acupuncture improves outcomes in ..."
Hwang J. & Lio P. (2021) Acupuncture in Dermatology: An Update to a Systematic Review. J Altern Complement Med. 2021;27(1):12-23. 🔗
Research Trends of Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis on Acupuncture Therapy: A Bibliometric Analysis.
"...Results: An analysis of 1189 articles in English showed that the total number of publications continually increased in the last 12 years. General medicine was the most used category, and the country and institution ranking highest in this field were China and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, respectively. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine was the most prolific journal, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was the most cited journal. Myeong Soo Lee was the most productive author, and J.P.T. Higgins ranked first in frequency among the cited authors. In the cited references, the top two were Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and the Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA). As for keywords, there were 6 main frontiers including interventions, disease, patient, comparisons, study types, and outcomes. The first disease was pain, while the intervention was electroacupuncture (EA). ..."
Jiang J., Zhang J. et al. (2021) Research Trends of Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis on Acupuncture Therapy: A Bibliometric Analysis. J Pain Res. 2021;14:561-573. 🔗
Acupuncture for post-operative cognitive dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
"...RESULTS: Sixteen studies containing 1241 participants were included. POCD incidence in the acupuncture group was significantly lower than that in the control groups on the first (odds ratio (OR) = 0.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.23-0.45) and third (OR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.30-0.56) post-operative days, with no statistically significant difference on the seventh day (OR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.32-1.04). Acupuncture therapy also improved mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores on the first (mean difference (MD) = 3.28, 95% CI = 2.79-3.77) and third (MD = 2.52, 95% CI = 2.18-2.87) post-operative days, with no effect on the seventh (MD = 0.14, 95% CI = -0.24 to 0.51). Visual analogue scale (VAS) scores on the first post-operative day were not impacted by acupuncture but were likely associated with post-operative nausea and vomiting on the seventh post-operative day. With respect to methodological quality, most RCTs were found to have an unclear risk of bias. ..."
Tang Y., Wang T. et al. (2020) Acupuncture for post-operative cognitive dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Acupunct Med. 2020:964528420961393. 🔗
Somatotopic Organization and Intensity Dependence in Driving Distinct NPY-Expressing Sympathetic Pathways by Electroacupuncture.
"The neuroanatomical basis behind acupuncture practice is still poorly understood. Here, we used intersectional genetic strategy to ablate NPY noradrenergic neurons and/or adrenal chromaffin cells. Using endotoxin-induced systemic inflammation as a model, we found that electroacupuncture stimulation (ES) drives sympathetic pathways in somatotopy- and intensity-dependent manners. Low-intensity ES at hindlimb regions drives the ..."
Liu S., Wang Z. et al. (2020) Somatotopic Organization and Intensity Dependence in Driving Distinct NPY-Expressing Sympathetic Pathways by Electroacupuncture. Neuron. 2020;108(3):436-450.e7. 🔗
Use of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Sports-Related Injuries in Athletes: A Systematic Review of Case Reports.
"Acupuncture is one of the representative complementary and alternative medicine treatments used for various types of pain. This systematic review summarized and analyzed clinical case reports/series utilizing acupuncture for treating sports injuries in athletes, thereby providing the basis for further research to establish clinical evidence on acupuncture treatment in sports medicine. A comprehensive ..."
Lee J., Lee J. et al. (2020) Use of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Sports-Related Injuries in Athletes: A Systematic Review of Case Reports. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(21). 🔗
Therapeutic effects of acupuncture in typical dry eye: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
"Acupuncture is a treatment option for dry eye syndrome (DES), but its efficacy remains still controversial. We assessed the effectiveness of this treatment for typical DES without specific aetiologies. Eight databases up through June 2018 were searched for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) comparing treatments of acupuncture with artificial tears. The risk of bias was assessed ..."
Na J., Jung J. et al. (2020) Therapeutic effects of acupuncture in typical dry eye: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Acta Ophthalmol. 2020. 🔗
Acupuncture for ulcerative colitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials.
"...RESULTS: We included 13 RCTs (1030 participants, 515 in the acupuncture group and 515 in the control group). Only one study tested head acupuncture, and the other 12 tested body acupuncture. The treatment duration ranged from 14 to 60 days. Seven trials compared acupuncture alone versus conventional medicine, and six compared acupuncture combined with conventional medicine versus conventional medicine. Acupuncture combined with mesalazine showed better clinical effect (improved clinical symptoms, colonoscopy results and stool examination results) (RR 1.25, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.41; 232 participants; 4 trials; low quality evidence) and better colonoscopy curative effect (RR 1.33, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.71; 108 participants; 2 trials; moderate quality evidence) compared to mesalazine. Acupuncture showed better clinical effect compared to the combination of metronidazole and sulfasalazine (RR 1.21, 95%CI 1.10, 1.34; 318 participants; 3 trials; moderate quality evidence). There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse events between groups. ..."
Wang X., Zhao N. et al. (2020) Acupuncture for ulcerative colitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. BMC Complement Med Ther. 2020;20(1):309. 🔗
Dry cupping for musculoskeletal pain and range of motion: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: A total of 21 RCTs with 1049 participants were included. Overall, the quality of evidence was fair, with a mean D&B score of 18/28. Low-quality evidence revealed dry cupping had a significant effect on pain reduction for chronic neck pain (MD, -21.67; 95% CI, -36.55, to -6.80) and low back pain (MD, -19.38; 95%CI, -28.09, to -10.66). Moderate-quality evidence suggested that dry cupping improved functional status for chronic neck pain (MD, -4.65; 95%CI, -6.44, to -2.85). For range of motion, low quality evidence revealed a significant difference when compared to no treatment (SMD, -0.75; 95%CI, -0.75, to -0.32). ..."
Wood S., Fryer G. et al. (2020) Dry cupping for musculoskeletal pain and range of motion: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Bodyw Mov Ther. 2020;24(4):503-518. 🔗
Evidence map on the contributions of traditional, complementary and integrative medicines for health care in times of COVID-19.
"...Results: For the map, 126 systematic reviews and controlled clinical studies were characterized, distributed in a matrix with 62 interventions (18 phytotherapy, 9 mind-body therapies, 11 traditional Chinese medicine, 7 homeopathic and anthroposophic dynamized medicines and 17 supplements), and 67 outcomes (14 immunological response, 23 mental health, 25 complementary clinical management of the infection and 5 other). ..."
Portella C., Ghelman R. et al. (2020) Evidence map on the contributions of traditional, complementary and integrative medicines for health care in times of COVID-19. Integr Med Res. 2020;9(3):100473. 🔗
Acupuncture for tinnitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
"...RESULTS: Eight studies involving 504 participants were included. Meta-analysis showed no significant differences in the VAS score (mean difference (MD) = -1.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) = -3.69 to 0.07; = 0.06) between the acupuncture and control groups. However, favorable effects of acupuncture on changes in THI score (MD = -10.11, 95% CI = -12.74 to -7.48; 0.001) and TSI score (MD = -8.36, 95% CI = -8.87 to -7.86; 0.001) were found. ..."
Huang K., Liang S. et al. (2020) Acupuncture for tinnitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Acupunct Med. 2020:964528420938380. 🔗
Complementary, alternative, integrative and dietary therapies for children with Crohn's disease - A systematic review.
"Children with diagnosed inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease are faced with the daunting prospect of living with a chronic disease. Besides psychological stress, children are suffering from therapy side-effects; in particular, corticosteroid therapies are problematic in the growth phase. This highlights that there is a need for less aggressive alternative therapies for ..."
Schwermer M., Fetz K. et al. (2020) Complementary, alternative, integrative and dietary therapies for children with Crohn's disease - A systematic review. Complement Ther Med. 2020;52:102493. 🔗
Acupuncture for treating diabetic retinopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
"...RESULTS: Of 864 citations, 6 RCTs met the inclusion criteria of our review. Four studies reported the beneficial effects of acupuncture with standard medication or acupuncture alone compared with standard medication or no treatment on the effective rate. Only three studies showed that acupuncture combined with standard medications significantly improved visual acuity compared to standard medication alone. None of the studies reported on adverse events. The risk of bias of the included studies was judged to be of "some concern" and was marked with a moderate and low certainty of evidence in different outcomes. ..."
Ang L., Song E. et al. (2020) Acupuncture for treating diabetic retinopathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Complement Ther Med. 2020;52:102490. 🔗
The Safety of Laser Acupuncture: A Systematic Review.
"Laser acupuncture has become increasingly attractive in clinical practice, especially for patients with needle phobias well as elderly people and children. However, literature concerning the safety of laser acupuncture has been limited. This systematic review synthesizes the current available literature on the safety of laser acupuncture. Ovid MEDLINE, Epub Ahead of Print, In-Process & Other ..."
Yang J., Mallory M. et al. (2020) The Safety of Laser Acupuncture: A Systematic Review. Med Acupunct. 2020;32(4):209-217. 🔗
Cupping therapy for patients with chronic urticaria: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Thirteen comparisons from 12 RCTs involving 842 participants were included. There were no significant differences between wet cupping and medications in total effective rate (n = 372; risk ratio [RR] = 1.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.97 to 1.25; P = 0.14) or recurrence rate (n = 240; RR = 0.56, 95% CI 0.23 to 1.36; P = 0.20). Cupping therapy, in combination with antihistamine treatment was more efficacious than antihistamines alone, with a greater total effective rate (n = 342; RR = 1.18, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.39; P = 0.03) and lower recurrence rate (n = 342; RR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.84; P = 0.007). Cupping therapy combined with acupuncture was more effective than acupuncture alone (n = 156; RR = 1.25, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.46; P = 0.006). No serious adverse events were reported. ..."
Xiao X., Zhang L. et al. (2020) Cupping therapy for patients with chronic urticaria: A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Integr Med. 2020;18(4):303-312. 🔗
Acupuncture for Patients in Coma after Traumatic Brain Injury: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: Of 884 potentially relevant trials, 24 RCTs met the inclusion criteria. The results of the meta-analysis suggested that the acupuncture group's coma state was significantly lessened after treatment compared with the control on GOS (RR, 1.95, 95% CI [1.64 to 2.31], P < .01; I² = 0%), wake-promoting rates (RR, 1.48, 95% CI [1.19 to 1.83], P < .01; I² = 52%), and GCS (MD, 1.78, 95% CI [1.10 to 2.45], P < .01; I² = 52%) . ..."
Zhang Q., Liu J. et al. (2020) Acupuncture for Patients in Coma after Traumatic Brain Injury: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Altern Ther Health Med. 2020;26(4):50-57. 🔗
Acupuncture techniques for COPD: a systematic review.
"...RESULTS: Thirty-three trials met the inclusion criteria, which involved the follow techniques: AcuTENS (7 trials), moxibustion (11 trials), acupressure (7 trials), ear acupuncture (6 trials), acupressure and ear acupuncture combined (1 trial) and cupping (1 trial). Due to the great heterogeneity, only 7 meta-analysis could be performed (AcuTENS vs sham on quality of life and exercise capacity, acupressure vs no acupressure on quality of life and anxiety and ear acupuncture vs sham on FEV and FEV/FVC) with only acupressure showing statistical differences for quality of life (SMD: -0.63 95%CI: - 0.88, - 0.39 I = 0%) and anxiety (HAM-A scale MD:-4.83 95%CI: - 5.71, - 3.94 I = 0%). ..."
Fernández-Jané C., Vilaró J. et al. (2020) Acupuncture techniques for COPD: a systematic review. BMC Complement Med Ther. 2020;20(1):138. 🔗
The effectiveness of PC6 acupuncture in the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Sixteen literatures and 1773 patients undergoing general anesthesia were included in the study. The results indicated that acupuncture was effective in reducing postoperative vomiting, both during the first 4 hours (RR = 0.47, 95% CI 0.26, 0.84; low quality) and within 24 hours postoperatively (RR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.60, 0.91; low quality). Stratifying by the timing of acupuncture, acupuncture was effective in reducing the first 4 hours (RR = 0.34, 95% CI 0.18, 0.64; moderate quality), and 0-24 hours postoperative vomiting (RR = 0.81, 95% CI 0.70, 0.93; moderate quality) when performed before and during anesthesia, respectively. Further, the RR value was more robust when acupuncture was performed before anesthesia. Acupuncture was also effective in treating 0-24 hours postoperative nausea (RR = 0.73, 95% CI 0.60, 0.88; moderate quality) and in reducing the utilization of remedies during the first 4 hours (RR = 0.64, 95% CI 0.45, 0.89; moderate quality). ..."
Zhang Y., Zhang C. et al. (2020) The effectiveness of PC6 acupuncture in the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Paediatr Anaesth. 2020;30(5):552-563. 🔗
The effectiveness of acupuncture for pain reduction in delayed-onset muscle soreness: a systematic review.
"...RESULTS: Five RCTs investigating laboratory-induced DOMS in the upper limbs with a total sample size of 182 healthy participants were included. Of the included studies, three reported superiority of acupuncture over no treatment in DOMS pain reduction as measured by visual analogue scale, pressure pain threshold or electrical pain threshold, while two studies yielded non-significant results. All studies demonstrated risk of bias in one or more areas, commonly lack of blinding of participants and personnel. SUMMARY/..."
Ko G. & Clarkson C. (2020) The effectiveness of acupuncture for pain reduction in delayed-onset muscle soreness: a systematic review. Acupunct Med. 2020;38(2):63-74. 🔗
Clinical trial registration, and publication in acupuncture studies: A systematic review.
"...Results: Forty-three countries/areas conducted at least one acupuncture clinical trial. The total number of registrations was 1758. China, the USA, and the Republic of Korea accounted for 61% of those registrations. The proportion of publication was 178/1758 10% for the fully published papers and 141/1758 8% for the protocol papers. ..."
Matsuura Y., Takazawa Wlch N. et al. (2020) Clinical trial registration, and publication in acupuncture studies: A systematic review. Integr Med Res. 2020;9(1):56-61. 🔗
Acupuncture for glaucoma.
"...RESULTS: We included three completed trials and one ongoing trial in the 2019 update of this review. The three completed trials, conducted in Taiwan and the United States, included participants with glaucoma or intraocular hypertension. The interventions investigated varied across trials. One trial compared auricular acupressure－a non-standard acupuncture technique－with the sham procedure in 33 patients. Another trial compared transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) with a sham procedure in 82 patients. The third trial compared 12 sessions of acupuncture on eye-points versus on non-eye-points in 22 patients. All three trials were rated at high risk of bias for at least one domain. The certainty of evidence across all outcomes was very low due to high risk of bias in at least one contributing study; substantial clinical heterogeneity and methodological heterogeneity; and imprecision of results. One trial reported change in the visual field from baseline without any between-group comparison. Because of the quantity of missing data (50%), we did not calculate a between-group comparison, as the quantitative results are difficult to interpret. All three trials reported data for estimation of reduction of intraocular pressure (IOP). However, time points of IOP measurement varied. For the trial comparing acupressure to a sham procedure, the difference in IOP reduction (measured in mm Hg) is estimated to be -3.70 (95% confidence interval [CI] -7.11 to -0.29) for the right eye and -4.90 (95% CI -8.08 to -1.72) for the left eye at four weeks, and -1.30 mm Hg (95% CI -4.78 to 2.18) for the right eye and -2.30 mm Hg (95% CI -5.73 to 1.13) for the left eye at eight weeks. For the trial comparing TENS to sham treatment, the difference reduction is estimated to be -2.81 (95% CI -3.8 to -1.84) for the right eye and -2.58 (95% CI -3.36 to -1.80) for the left eye immediately after treatment, -2.93 (95% CI -3.72 to -2.13) for the right eye and -3.56 (95% CI -4.35 to 2.78) for the left eye 30 minutes after treatment, and finally -3.61 (95% CI -4.47 to -2.75) for the right eye and -3.61 (95% -4.47 to -2.74) for the left eye. For the trial that compared acupuncture on eye-points versus non-eye-points, 11 out of 22 (50%) participants did not complete the treatment. One trial reported data for estimation of visual acuity. When acupressure is compared to sham treatment, the difference in uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA, measured in logMAR) is estimated to be -0.01 (95% CI -0.24 to 0.22) for the right eye and -0.04 (95% CI -0.27 to 0.19) for the left eye at four months, and -0.03 logMAR (95% CI -0.27 to 0.21) for the right eye and -0.16 logMAR (95% CI -0.43 to 0.11) for the left eye at eight months. The difference in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) is estimated to be 0.10 (95% CI -0.06 to 0.26) for the right eye and 0 (95% CI -0.14 to 0.14) for the left eye at four months, and -0.04 logMAR (95% CI -0.09 to 0.17) for the right eye and -0.04 logMAR (95% CI -0.18 to 0.10) for the left eye at eight months. One trial reported progression of optic disc damage or nerve fiber layer loss without any between-group comparison. Because of the quantity of missing data (50%), we did not calculate a between-group comparison, as the quantitative results are difficult to interpret. One trial reported adverse events in two patients (out of 22) who experienced needle sensitivity. However, the study did not report between-group comparisons. Because of the quantity of missing data (50%), we did not calculate a between-group comparison, as the quantitative results are difficult to interpret. AUTHORS' ..."
Law S., Wang L. et al. (2020) Acupuncture for glaucoma. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;2:CD006030. 🔗
Acupuncture in sham device controlled trials may not be as effective as acupuncture in the real world: a preliminary network meta-analysis of studies of acupuncture for hot flashes in menopausal women.
"...RESULTS: Eight studies were included in this review. From the network meta-analysis, we found that verum acupuncture in the shallow needling controlled trials was more effective than verum acupuncture in the sham device controlled trials (SMD -7.27, 95% CI-9.11 to -5.43). Significant heterogeneity and inconsistency were not observed among the included studies or the comparisons. ..."
Kim T., Lee M. et al. (2020) Acupuncture in sham device controlled trials may not be as effective as acupuncture in the real world: a preliminary network meta-analysis of studies of acupuncture for hot flashes in menopausal women. Acupunct Med. 2020;38(1):37-44. 🔗
Auricular acupressure for myopia in children and adolescents: A systematic review.
"...RESULTS: Ten RCTs were included to be qualitatively summarized, of which 5 studies qualified for the meta-analysis of the efficacy rate in treating myopia. This review demonstrated that auricular acupressure alone was more effective than eye-drops treatment, eye exercise, and was the just as effective as needle acupuncture. ..."
Gao H., Zhang L. et al. (2020) Auricular acupressure for myopia in children and adolescents: A systematic review. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2020;38:101067. 🔗
Efficacy and safety of acupuncture on relieving abdominal pain and distension for acute pancreatitis: A protocol for systematic review.
"INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture on relieving abdominal pain and distension in acute pancreatitis. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will electronically search PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trial, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Biomedical Literature Database, China Science ..."
Zhu X., Yang L. et al. (2020) Efficacy and safety of acupuncture on relieving abdominal pain and distension for acute pancreatitis: A protocol for systematic review. Medicine (Baltimore). 2020;99(8):e19044. 🔗
Effectiveness and safety of ear acupuncture for trauma-related mental disorders after large-scale disasters: A PRISMA-compliant systematic review.
"...RESULTS: In total, 10 studies including 3 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), 3 before-after studies, 1 case report, 1 qualitative research, and 2 reports of public mental health services were analyzed. Ear acupuncture improved overall post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related symptoms in patients with PTSD after disasters. For insomnia in patients with PTSD, although ear acupuncture improved a few subscales of the Pittsburgh sleep quality index in an RCT, other outcomes including sleep diary, actigraph, and the insomnia severity index were not improved. The methodological quality of RCTs was generally low. Serious adverse events related to ear acupuncture were not reported. ..."
Kwon C., Lee B. et al. (2020) Effectiveness and safety of ear acupuncture for trauma-related mental disorders after large-scale disasters: A PRISMA-compliant systematic review. Medicine (Baltimore). 2020;99(8):e19342. 🔗
The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for patients with atopic eczema: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: A total of eight RCTs (with 434 participants) were included. The results of one included RCT showed that acupuncture was better than no treatment at reducing itch intensity measured using a visual analogue scale in patients with AE. The combined results of six RCTs showed that acupuncture was better than conventional medicine at reducing the eczema area and severity index (EASI) (MD: -1.89, 95% CI: -3.04 to -0.75, I: 78%) and the combined results of seven RCTs showed that acupuncture was better than conventional medicine in terms of global symptom improvement (RR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.20 to 2.11, I: 55%) in AE. We had insufficient data to show significant effects of acupuncture on quality of life and AE recurrence rate. No severe adverse events were found related to acupuncture. LIMITATIONS: The included RCTs had some methodological limitations, and most of the included trials were conducted in China. This analysis only included studies that compared acupuncture alone with no treatment or positive control (conventional medicine), so the specific effects of acupuncture could not be evaluated. ..."
Jiao R., Yang Z. et al. (2020) The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for patients with atopic eczema: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Acupunct Med. 2020;38(1):3-14. 🔗
Acupuncture and moxibustion for primary osteoporosis: An overview of systematic review.
"Primary osteoporosis (PO) is a common disease that was characterized by a systemic impairment of bone mass and microarchitecture that results in fragility fractures and constitutes a pressing public health problem. But the effect of acupuncture or moxibustion treatment for PO is controversial.To provide a comprehensive systematic overview of current evidence from systematic ..."
Xu G., Xiao Q. et al. (2020) Acupuncture and moxibustion for primary osteoporosis: An overview of systematic review. Medicine (Baltimore). 2020;99(9):e19334. 🔗
Acupuncture for Breathlessness in Advanced Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Twelve studies with 597 patients (347 COPD, 190 advanced cancer) were included. For breathlessness severity, significant differences were obtained in a meta-analysis (10 studies with 480 patients; standardized mean difference (SMD) = -1.77 [95% CI -3.05, -0.49; P = 0.007; I = 90%]) and in a subgroup analysis of using sham acupuncture control groups and a treatment duration of at least three weeks (6 studies with 302 patients; SMD = -2.53 [95% CI -4.07, -0.99; P = 0.001; I = 91%]). Exercise tolerance (6-minute walk test) improved significantly in the acupuncture group (6 studies with 287 patients; SMD = 0.93 [95% CI 0.27, 1.59; P = 0.006; I = 85%]). In four of six studies, quality of life improved in the acupuncture group. ..."
von Trott P., Oei S. et al. (2020) Acupuncture for Breathlessness in Advanced Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020;59(2):327-338.e3. 🔗
The effect of auricular therapy on blood pressure: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: We systematically reviewed 44 randomized controlled trials (involving 5022 patients through June 2018). Auricular acupressure plus antihypertensive drugs might be more effective than antihypertensive drugs alone in both reducing systolic blood pressure value after treatment (=464 patients; mean difference, -5.06 mm Hg; 95% confidence interval, -6.76- -3.36, <0.00001; =32%), decreasing diastolic blood pressure after treatment (=464 patients; mean difference, -5.30 mm Hg; 95% confidence interval, -6.27- -4.33, <0.00001; =0%) and the efficacy rate (relative risk, 1.22; 95% confidence interval, 1.17-1.26; <0.00001; =0%). ..."
Gao J., Chen G. et al. (2020) The effect of auricular therapy on blood pressure: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs. 2020;19(1):20-30. 🔗
Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture Therapy for Patients with Acute Ankle Sprain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"...Results: Seventeen eligible studies were included for the statistical analysis. There was no statistically significant difference of Kofoed ankle score between acupuncture and Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation (RICE) group (=0.75). However, acupuncture could significantly relieve pain (=0.02) and increase cure rate (=0.004) compared with RICE. Moreover, acupuncture plus RICE could also significantly relieve pain ( < 0.00001) and increase cure rate (=0.01) compared with RICE alone. Acupuncture combined with massage could significantly relieve pain (=0.04) compared with massage alone. Acupuncture plus Chinese medicine might be more effective for relieving pain ( < 0.00001), reducing the duration of pain ( < 0.00001), and increasing cure rate (=0.0002) compared with Chinese medicine alone. Two studies reported no adverse reactions. One study reported that a participant suffered from mild drug-related allergic reaction and was healed without treatment. ..."
Liu A., Gong S. et al. (2020) Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture Therapy for Patients with Acute Ankle Sprain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020:9109531. 🔗
Effects of acupuncture in patients with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review.
"...RESULTS: nine studies were selected; the acupuncture techniques used were auriculotherapy, electroacupuncture and acupressure aimed at improving quality of life, fatigue, sleep and clinical variables of the disease. The studies that assessed quality of life, sleep and fatigue presented significant benefits. Studies that assessed quality of life, sleep and fatigue presented significant benefits. There was no statistical significance in the improvement of serum creatinine levels and glomerular filtration rate. Methodological and assessment tools' divergence made impossible meta-analysis ..."
Melo G., Aguiar L. et al. (2020) Effects of acupuncture in patients with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review. Rev Bras Enferm. 2020;73(4):e20180784. 🔗
Does Acupuncture Benefit Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness After Strenuous Exercise? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"This systematic review and meta-analysis was designed to evaluate the effects of acupuncture intervention on alleviating delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) after intense exercise. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were searched from online databases including Medline (PubMed), Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, PsycINFO, China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database (CNKI), and Wanfang (Chinese) up ..."
Huang C., Wang Z. et al. (2020) Does Acupuncture Benefit Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness After Strenuous Exercise? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Front Physiol. 2020;11:666. 🔗
Effectiveness and Safety of Acupuncture Moxibustion Therapy Used in Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: Twelve eligible RCTs are confirmed. Most of the trials selected are regarded as low methodological quality. Compared with Western medicine, physiotherapy, and functional training, traditional AMT has significantly higher treatment effect (RR 1.03 (95% CI: 1.22, 1.45); < 0.00001). In comparison with physiotherapy, AMT is better in reducing edema symptoms (MD = -0.77; 95% CI (-1.13-0.41); < 0.00001). Moreover, pooled results demonstrate that AMT results in better outcomes than functional training and Western medicine in improving Karnofsky performance score of BCRL patients (SMD = 0.69; 95% CI (0.38-1.00); < 0.00001). ..."
Jin H., Xiang Y. et al. (2020) Effectiveness and Safety of Acupuncture Moxibustion Therapy Used in Breast Cancer-Related Lymphedema: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020:3237451. 🔗
Acupuncture methods for allergic rhinitis: a systematic review and bayesian meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
"...Results: Exactly 39 studies with 3433 participants were covered in this meta-analysis. The meta-analysis demonstrated that all acupuncture types were superior to sham acupuncture in terms of total nasal symptom score and rhinoconjunctivitis quality of life questionnaire. Moxibustion was recommended as the most effective intervention as it reduced nasal symptoms in 6 treatments. On the other hand, manual acupuncture plus conventional medicine was recommended as the most effective intervention in improving the quality of life in 9 treatments. Notably, moxibustion was recommended as the most effective intervention that changed the content of IgE in 9 treatments. Moreover, adverse events of these interventions were acceptable. ..."
Yin Z., Geng G. et al. (2020) Acupuncture methods for allergic rhinitis: a systematic review and bayesian meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Chin Med. 2020;15:109. 🔗
Effects of Acupuncture on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: A total of 15 articles were included, and relief of DOMS-related pain was the primary outcome. The statistical meta-analysis showed that there were no significant differences between acupuncture and sham/control groups, except for acupuncture for DOMS on day 1 (total SMD = -0.62; 95% CI = -1.12∼0.11, < 0.05) by comparing with control groups. ..."
Chang W., Chang N. et al. (2020) Effects of Acupuncture on Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020:5864057. 🔗
Acupuncture for the Postcholecystectomy Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: A total of 14 RCTs with 1593 participants were included in this SR. MA showed that acupuncture in combination with conventional medicine (CM) did not show statistical differences in reduction in pain. However, acupuncture in combination with CM significantly reduced the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) (RR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.55-0.92) and improved gastrointestinal function recovery compared to the CM group. Acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medicine and CM, and acupuncture as monotherapy may improve gastrointestinal function recovery with acceptable adverse events. ..."
Yin Z., Xiao Q. et al. (2020) Acupuncture for the Postcholecystectomy Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020:7509481. 🔗
Acupuncture at Zusanli (ST36) for Experimental Sepsis: A Systematic Review.
"...Results: Acupuncture might be useful in reducing injuries induced by sepsis in cardiac, lung, kidney, liver, gastrointestinal tract, and immune system. Its potential mechanisms for antisepsis might include reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, improving microcirculatory disturbance, and maintaining the immune balance mediated by dopamine. However, the positive findings should be interpreted with caution due to poor methodological quality and publication bias. ..."
Lai F., Ren Y. et al. (2020) Acupuncture at Zusanli (ST36) for Experimental Sepsis: A Systematic Review. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020:3620741. 🔗
Using Forbidden Points in Pregnancy: Adverse Outcomes and Quality of Evidence in Randomized Controlled Trials-A Systematic Narrative Review.
"Pregnancy is a complex physical and hormonal condition. Many women experience back and pelvic pain, reflux, and headaches during pregnancy. There has been a significant rise in the popularity of acupuncture for pain conditions in pregnancy, wherein nonpharmacologic options are important. Concerns have been raised by both traditional and medical acupuncturists about using "forbidden ..."
Levett K., Sutcliffe K. et al. (2019) Using Forbidden Points in Pregnancy: Adverse Outcomes and Quality of Evidence in Randomized Controlled Trials-A Systematic Narrative Review. Med Acupunct. 2019;31(6):346-360. 🔗
Filiform needle acupuncture for copd: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: 28 trials using filiform needle alone or in combination of other techniques were included. Compared with no acupuncture, no difference was seen for dyspnoea, but statistical benefits were found on quality of life (Std. MD: -0.62, 95%CI: -0.90, -0.34), exercise capacity (stable subgroup) (6MWT MD: 33.05 m, 95%CI: 19.11, 46.99) and lung function (FEV% MD: 1.58, 95%CI: 0.51, 2.66). Compared with sham, statistical benefits were found on dyspnoea (Std. MD: -1.07, 95%CI: -1.58, -0.56), quality of life (Std. MD: -0.81, 95%CI: -1.12, -0.49), exercise capacity (6MWT MD: 76.68 m, 95% CI: 39.93, 113.43) and lung function (FEV% MD: 5.40, 95%CI: 2.90, 7.91; FEV1/FVC MD: 6.64, 95%CI: 3.44, 9.83). ..."
Fernández-Jané C., Vilaró J. et al. (2019) Filiform needle acupuncture for copd: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Complement Ther Med. 2019;47:102182. 🔗
The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for the treatment of myasthenia gravis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
"...RESULTS: Thirteen RCTs involving a total of 775 participants were included. Most included trials had a high risk of bias in allocation concealment and blinding. Eleven RCTs used acupuncture as an adjuvant to medication, and this treatment showed a significant improvement in the RCS response rate compared to medication alone (RR: 1.42; 95% CI: 1.06-1.91; P=0.02). The subgroup analysis based on the treatment duration showed a significant effect on the RCS response rate when the treatment duration was longer than 12 weeks (RR: 2.02; 95% CI: 1.31-3.12; P=0.001). In contrast, there was no significant effect of treatment with a duration less than 8 weeks (RR: 1.14; 95% CI: 0.91-1.44; P=0.26). Four RCTs showed a significant difference in the absolute clinical score (ACS) (RR: 3.42; 95% CI: 1.23-5.61; P=0.002). The acupuncture group reported better outcomes. No severe adverse events corresponding to acupuncture were reported. ..."
Zhang X., Ding W. et al. (2019) The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for the treatment of myasthenia gravis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann Palliat Med. 2019;8(5):576-585. 🔗
Effectiveness and safety of moxibustion in treatment of lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: In total, 16 RCTs including 1186 patients with LDH were analyzed. The Meta-analysis showed favorable effects of moxibustion in combination with massage therapy on the visual analog scale score compared with massage therapy alone [mean difference (MD) = -1.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) (-2.12, -0.51), P = 0.001]. The subgroup Meta-analysis failed to show favorable effects of electro-acupuncture plus moxibustion on the efficacy rate compared with electro-acupuncture alone [relative risk (RR) = 1.06, 95% CI (0.98, 1.14), P = 0.15]. However, acupuncture or massage therapy plus moxibustion improved the efficacy rates compared with acupuncture or massage therapy alone [RR = 1.33, 95% CI (1.18, 1.49), P < 0.000 01] [χ2 = 2.76, P = 0.25, I2 = 27%], [RR = 1.15, 95% CI (1.06, 1.25), P = 0.001] [χ2 = 0.00, P = 0.95, I2 = 0%]. With respect to the Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores, acupuncture or massage therapy in addition to moxibustion produced results different from those of acupuncture or massage therapy alone [MD = 5.58, 95% CI (4.15, 7.00), P < 0.000 01] [χ2 = 0.58, P = 0.45, I2 = 0%], [MD = 3.61, 95% CI (3.01, 4.21), P < 0.000 01].There were no significant differences in the JOA score for subjective symptoms, objective symptoms, daily living ability, and other parameters. In six RCTs, no adverse reactions occurred during moxibustion. ..."
Wang Y., Zhang H. et al. (2019) Effectiveness and safety of moxibustion in treatment of lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review and Meta-analysis. J Tradit Chin Med. 2019;39(5):599-608. 🔗
Acupuncture for Acute Pancreatitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Twelve eligible studies were included finally. The meta-analysis showed that acupuncture plus RT compared with RT alone could significantly improve the total effective rate and gastrointestinal function and reduce the Acute Physiology, Age, Chronic Health Evaluation II score, tumor necrosis factor α count, the time of resuming to diets, and the length of hospital stay. Only 3 of the studies reported adverse events or reactions. ..."
Zhang K., Gao C. et al. (2019) Acupuncture for Acute Pancreatitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Pancreas. 2019;48(9):1136-1147. 🔗
Correlation between acupuncture dose and effectiveness in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review.
"...RESULTS: Eight RCTs with a total of 2106 subjects met the eligibility criteria. Numbers of studies using the various doses of acupuncture were 1 for LD, 1 for MD and 6 for HD, respectively. Compared with LD and MD acupuncture treatments, strong evidence showed that there was a positive correlation between HD acupuncture treatment and positive outcomes. ..."
Sun N., Tu J. et al. (2019) Correlation between acupuncture dose and effectiveness in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review. Acupunct Med. 2019;37(5):261-267. 🔗
Effectiveness of Acupuncture on Pain, Physical Function and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review of Quantitative Evidence.
"...RESULTS: Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria. Of those, 9 studies were excluded after assessment of their methodological quality. The remaining 13 original RCTs included 974 patients. Ten of these studies published in China, showed favorable statistical significant effects of acupuncture in relieving symptoms of RA compared with controls. ..."
Seca S., Miranda D. et al. (2019) Effectiveness of Acupuncture on Pain, Physical Function and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Systematic Review of Quantitative Evidence. Chin J Integr Med. 2019;25(9):704-709. 🔗
Acupuncture for chronic hepatitis B.
"...RESULTS: We included eight randomised clinical trials with 555 randomised participants. All included trials compared acupuncture versus no intervention. These trials assessed heterogeneous acupuncture interventions. All trials used heterogeneous co-interventions applied equally in the compared groups. Seven trials included participants with chronic hepatitis B, and one trial included participants with chronic hepatitis B with comorbid tuberculosis. All trials were assessed at overall high risk of bias, and the certainty of evidence for all outcomes was very low due to high risk of bias for each outcome, imprecision of results (the confidence intervals were wide), and publication bias (small sample size of the trials, and all trials were conducted in China). Additionally, 79 trials lacked the necessary methodological information to ensure their inclusion in our review.None of the included trials aim to assess all-cause mortality, serious adverse events, health-related quality of life, hepatitis B-related mortality, and hepatitis B-related morbidity. We are uncertain whether acupuncture, compared with no intervention, has an effect regarding adverse events considered not to be serious (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.43 to 1.06; I² = 0%; 3 trials; 203 participants; very low-certainty evidence) or detectable hepatitis B e-antigen (HBeAg) (RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.11 to 3.68; I² = 98%; 2 trials; 158 participants; very low-certainty evidence). Acupuncture showed a reduction in detectable hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA (a non-validated surrogate outcome; RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.74; 1 trial, 58 participants; very low-certainty evidence). We are uncertain whether acupuncture has an effect regarding the remaining separately reported adverse events considered not to be serious.Three of the eight included trials received academic funding from government or hospital. None of the remaining five trials reported information on funding. AUTHORS' ..."
Kong D., Liang N. et al. (2019) Acupuncture for chronic hepatitis B. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019;8:CD013107. 🔗
Distal acupoint stimulation versus peri-incisional stimulation for postoperative pain in open abdominal surgery: a systematic review and implications for clinical practice.
"...RESULTS: Thirty-five trials were included, in which 17 trials studied distal stimulation, another 17 trials studied peri-incisional stimulation and one studied the combination of the two approaches. No studies that directly compared the two approaches were identified. Subgroup analysis showed that both distal and peri-incisional stimulation significantly alleviated postoperative resting and movement pain from 4 h to 48 h after surgery by 6 to 25 mm on a 100 mm visual analogue scale. Peri-incisional stimulation showed a better reduction in postoperative opioid consumption. No studies compared the effects of the combined peri-incisional and distal stimulation with either mode alone. Overall the quality of evidence was moderate due to a lack of blinding in some studies, and unclear risk of allocation concealment. ..."
Zhu J., Xu Q. et al. (2019) Distal acupoint stimulation versus peri-incisional stimulation for postoperative pain in open abdominal surgery: a systematic review and implications for clinical practice. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2019;19(1):192. 🔗
Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization: A Systematic Review and Effect-Size Analysis
"Objective To determine the overall effectiveness of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) in improving range of motion (ROM), pain, strength, and patient-reported function in order to provide recommendations for use. We also sought to examine the influence of IASTM on injured and healthy participants, body part treated, and product used. Data Sources We searched ..."
Seffrin C., Cattano N. et al. (2019) Instrument-Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization: A Systematic Review and Effect-Size Analysis J Athl Train. 2019;54(7):808-821. 🔗
Acupuncture therapy improves health-related quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Of the 922 articles, 12 studies were included with attesting a total of 798 participants. The result obtained indicated a significant improvement that favored the BAT + M group over the M group in CAT scores (MD: -4.77; 95% CI: -6.53 to -3.01; p < 0.00001). ..."
Hsieh P., Yang M. et al. (2019) Acupuncture therapy improves health-related quality of life in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2019;35:208-218. 🔗
Acupuncture-Induced Cranial Epidural Abscess: Case Report and Review of the Literature.
"BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is a common form of alternative medicine that is used for pain control among other modalities of treatment. It is a relatively safe procedure, but complications, including those of infectious etiology, may still occur. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 47-year-old immunosuppressed woman presented with fever, altered level of consciousness, dysphasia, and a left occipital ..."
Priola S., Moghaddamjou A. et al. (2019) Acupuncture-Induced Cranial Epidural Abscess: Case Report and Review of the Literature. World Neurosurg. 2019;125:519-526.e1. 🔗
The effect of acupuncture on postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting after pediatric tonsillectomy: a systematic review.
"Introduction Tonsillectomy is one of the most commonly performed surgical procedures among children around the world and management of post tonsillectomy complications are very important. Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of acupuncture on the amount of pain, nausea and vomiting after tonsillectomy in children. Methods In this study, ..."
Pouy S., Etebarian A. et al. (2019) The effect of acupuncture on postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting after pediatric tonsillectomy: a systematic review. Int J Adolesc Med Health. 2019. 🔗
Accuracy and Precision in Acupuncture Point Location: A Critical Systematic Review.
"A number of studies have examined the accuracy and precision of acupuncture point location across various point location methods. Accuracy of point location is essential for safe, efficacious and reliable treatments and valid reproducible research outcomes. This review aims to identify, summarize, compare and critically appraise available empirical studies relating to the accuracy and ..."
Godson D. & Wardle J. (2019) Accuracy and Precision in Acupuncture Point Location: A Critical Systematic Review. J Acupunct Meridian Stud. 2019;12(2):52-66. 🔗
Effectiveness comparisons of acupuncture for psoriasis: A Bayesian network meta-analysis protocol.
"BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is an immune-mediated polygenic hereditary skin disease quality of the patients' life because of the great trouble it causes to patients. Whereas there is variability when we regard the selection of acupuncture treatments in practice and most choices are made based on personal experience or preference of clinician. This study uses network ..."
Xie Z., Zhou Y. et al. (2019) Effectiveness comparisons of acupuncture for psoriasis: A Bayesian network meta-analysis protocol. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019;98(17):e15356. 🔗
The Effects of Needling Therapies on Muscle Force Production: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: Twenty-one studies were included in this review, of which 9 were deemed to be of high quality (greater than 6/10 on the Physiotherapy Evidence Database [PEDro] scale), 11 of fair quality (5 to 6/10), and 1 of poor quality (less than 5/10). Three meta-analyses were performed. There was moderate strength of evidence and medium effect sizes for needling therapy to enhance force production in those with neck pain, and very low strength of evidence of no effect for individuals with nonspecific and postoperative shoulder pain and those with lateral epicondylalgia. Other studies not included in the 3 meta-analyses demonstrated no significant effect of needling on force production. These studies included individuals with carpal tunnel syndrome, knee osteoarthritis, ankle sprains, knee arthroscopy, or delayed-onset muscle soreness. ..."
Mansfield C., Vanetten L. et al. (2019) The Effects of Needling Therapies on Muscle Force Production: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther. 2019;49(3):154-170. 🔗
Systematic Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture Treatment for Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.
"...RESULTS: A total of 8 relevant kinds of literature were retrieved containing 633 AF patients (323 in the treatment group and 310 in the control group). Acupuncture treatment increased the total efficacy and the rate of AF cardioversion to sinus rhythm (RR: 1.38; 95% CI: 1.25 to 1.53 vs RR: 1.40;95% CI: 1.16 to 1.69; each P < 0.05), and decreased the time of AF cardioversion to sinus rhythm, the heart rate and incidence of adverse effects (RR: -3.95; 95% CI: -4.98 to -2.91 vs RR: -14.54; 95% CI: -24.09 to -5.00 vs RR: 0.48; 95% CI: 0.21 to 1.11, each P < 0.05). There was difference between retention time more and less than 30 minutes (I2 = 74.9%, P = 0.05). The funnel plot displayed a symmetrical and funnel-form shape, indicating low bias. ..."
Fei Y., Fei R. et al. (2019) Systematic Evaluation of Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture Treatment for Patients with Atrial Fibrillation. Open Access Maced J Med Sci. 2019;7(3):461-466. 🔗
Acupuncture for the treatment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss: A systematic review and meta-analysis: Acupuncture for SSNHL.
"...RESULTS: Twenty randomized controlled trials met our inclusion criteria. The electroacupuncture(EA), manual acupuncture(MA) plus western medicine(WM) and EA plus WM groups lead to significantly better pure tone audiometry(PTA) than WM alone in cured rate (P = 0.01; P < 00,001; P < 0.006, respectively). However, no significant differences were observed between MA and WM (p = 0.27). In terms of total effective rate, all of them showed significant improvement compared to WM alone (MA: P = 0.03; EA: P = 0.01; MA + WM: P < 0.00001; EA + WM: P = 0.04). In addition, no significant difference was found between the MA plus WM and WM alone groups in the improvement of tinnitus (P = 0.37). No trials reported serious adverse events. ..."
Chen S., Zhao M. et al. (2019) Acupuncture for the treatment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss: A systematic review and meta-analysis: Acupuncture for SSNHL. Complement Ther Med. 2019;42:381-388. 🔗
Efficacy of acupuncture in treating scars following tissue trauma.
"...Results: The search strategy discovered five case studies, one retrospective cohort study, one cohort study and three clinical trials that investigated the use of acupuncture for scars. Studies rated as low to moderate quality (26-50%) on the OCSI checklist due to lack of detailed reporting, use of non-validated outcome measures and heterogeneity of participant cohorts. Three case studies rated as moderate quality (5-6/8) and two as low quality (<2/8) on the JBI checklist. Discussion: All studies reported positive outcomes for the use of acupuncture for scar symptoms; however, treatment frequency, duration, number of treatments and points used varied between studies. ..."
Tuckey C., Kohut S. et al. (2019) Efficacy of acupuncture in treating scars following tissue trauma. Scars Burn Heal. 2019;5:2059513119831911. 🔗
Chinese Herbal Medicines Compared with N-Acetylcysteine for the Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"...Results: Thirteen randomized clinical trials enrolling 733 patients were included. All trials included had clear outcome indicators. The methodological quality of included trials was generally "poor." Few trials reported methods of randomization. One trial on Xuefu-zhuyu capsule assessed rate of acute exacerbation and mortality after treatment for 72 weeks and found no statistically significant difference between two groups. This meta-analysis demonstrated a significant improvement in QOL of IPF patients when CHMs was applied or combined with conventional medicine treatment. 6MWT was significantly improved in IPF patients after using CHMs or combined with conventional medicine treatment. CHMs treatment also had a certain improvement in TLC and DLCO, but the effect on FVC was not significant. Besides, CHMs failed to provide benefits in terms of PaO. The reported adverse events were not obvious and severe. ..."
Guo J., Li B. et al. (2019) Chinese Herbal Medicines Compared with N-Acetylcysteine for the Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019:5170638. 🔗
The Effectiveness and Safety of Acupoint Catgut Embedding for the Treatment of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: 12 RCTs with 876 participants were included in this review. Meta-analysis showed that ACET alone was not superior to medication in effectiveness rate (RR= 1.11; 95% CI (0.89, 1.40); =0.35) and E2 (SMD= 0.20; 95% CI (-0.17, 0.57); 0.28; =20%) while ACET combining medication was more effective on the effectiveness rate (RR= 1.32; 95% CI (1.20, 1.46); <0.000 01) and E2 (SMD= 1.24; 95% CI (0.63, 1.84); <0.0001). Additionally, ACET combining calcium could increase the bone mineral density (BMD) of the L2~4 vertebrae and femur-neck [WMD = 0.03; 95% CI (0.01, 0.05); =0.003; and WMD = 0.07; 95% CI (0.03, 0.10); = 0.0006], reduce TCM syndrome score [WMD = -1.85; 95% CI (-2.13, -1.57); <0.000 01], improve patient's quality of life [WMD = 6.90; 95% CI (3.90, 9.89); <0.000 01; and WMD = 12.34; 95% CI (5.09, 19.60); =0.0009], and relieve pain [WMD = -1.26; 95% CI (-1.66, -0.85); <0.000 01; and WMD = -2.59; 95% CI (-4.76, -0.43); = 0.02]. The TSA showed that the effectiveness of ACET for PMOP was demonstrated accurately. ..."
Huang F., Xie Y. et al. (2019) The Effectiveness and Safety of Acupoint Catgut Embedding for the Treatment of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019:2673763. 🔗
Effectiveness of Acupuncturing at the Sphenopalatine Ganglion Acupoint Alone for Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: Ten studies of eight articles involving 1004 participants were included. Result of meta-analysis showed that acupuncturing sphenopalatine ganglion acupoints alone was more effective than control groups. However, several adverse effects were reported. ..."
Fu Q., Zhang L. et al. (2019) Effectiveness of Acupuncturing at the Sphenopalatine Ganglion Acupoint Alone for Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019:6478102. 🔗
The Effectiveness and Safety of Moxibustion for Treating Knee Osteoarthritis: A PRISMA Compliant Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"...Results: A total of 39 RCTs were included, including 3293 patients. In the assessment of the quality, the evidence differs from low to high based on the Cochrane Bias Evaluation Tools and Jadad scale. Fourteen trials were of high quality, ten were of moderate quality, and 15 were of low quality. Therefore, the quality of the included studies was moderate. In this study, there were 66.67% of the literature, and only 17.95% of the literature correctly reported randomized grouping and allocation of hidden information, respectively. In adverse reactions, only 13 trials included were reported in the study. The main adverse reactions of moxibustion are burns and blisters, whereas the western medicine group was in epigastric discomfort. As for the total effective rate, the meta-analysis of 27 RCTs showed a significant effect of moxibustion VS western medicine (RR = 1.20, 95% CI = 1.16 to 1.25, = 45%, =0.007); as for the WOMAC scale, the subgroup meta-analysis of 13 trials showed that there was a statistically significant effect of moxibustion VS western medicine (MD = -11.08, 95% CI = -11.72 to -10.44, = 98%, < 0.00001) and 2 trials on moxibustion VS negative control (MD = -8.38, 95% CI = -12.69 to -4.06, = 0%, =0.77); as for the VAS score, the meta-analysis of 6 trials showed that there was a significant effect of moxibustion VS western medicine (MD = -2.12, 95% CI = -2.30 to -1.93, = 98%, < 0.00001); as for the symptom score, the meta-analysis of 7 trials showed that there was a significant effect of moxibustion VS western medicine (MD = -0.81, 95% CI = -1.24 to -0.37, = 50%, =0.06); as for the Lysholm score, the meta-analysis of 5 trials showed that there was a significant effect of moxibustion VS western medicine (MD = 7.61, 95% CI = 6.04 to 9.17, = 95%, < 0.00001); and as for the Lequesne score, the meta-analysis of 3 trials showed that there was a significant effect of moxibustion VS western medicine (MD = 3.29, 95% CI = 2.93 to 3.65, = 99%, < 0.00001). ..."
Yuan T., Xiong J. et al. (2019) The Effectiveness and Safety of Moxibustion for Treating Knee Osteoarthritis: A PRISMA Compliant Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Pain Res Manag. 2019:2653792. 🔗
Using Traditional Chinese Medicine to Relieve Asthma Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"Studies have demonstrated the effect of acupoint-based interventions in relieving the clinical symptoms of asthma. However, the effect of meridian-based interventions in asthma symptom relief is unknown. This systematic review and meta-analysis determined the effect of multiplex meridian interventions in asthma symptom relief. Eight electronic databases were searched for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) ..."
Wang M., Chen C. et al. (2019) Using Traditional Chinese Medicine to Relieve Asthma Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Am J Chin Med. 2019;47(8):1659-1674. 🔗
Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Electroacupuncture in Migraine Treatment: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis.
"Considering the heavy burden of migraine, it is essential to update insufficient and/or outdated clinical evidence supporting electroacupuncture (EA) in migraine therapy. In this study, a literature search of seven medical databases was performed. After data extraction and quality evaluation, 13 randomized controlled trials, including 1559 patients, were assessed in this analysis. Results demonstrated that ..."
Li X., Dai Q. et al. (2019) Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Electroacupuncture in Migraine Treatment: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. Am J Chin Med. 2019;47(8):1755-1780. 🔗
Conventional Treatments plus Acupuncture for Asthma in Adults and Adolescent: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: Nine studies were included. The results showed that conventional treatments plus acupuncture as a complementary therapy could improve the symptom response rate (OR = 7.87, 95% CI = [4.13, 14.99], p < 0.00001) and significantly decrease interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels (MD = -11.42; 95% CI = [-15.28, -7.56], p < 0.00001). However, indices of pulmonary function, including the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV) (MD = 0.22, 95% CI = [-0.11, 0.56], p = 0.19) and FEV/forced vital capacity (FVC) (MD = 8.62, 95% CI = [-0.35, 17.59], p = 0.06), failed to be improved with conventional treatments plus acupuncture. ..."
Jiang C., Jiang L. et al. (2019) Conventional Treatments plus Acupuncture for Asthma in Adults and Adolescent: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019:9580670. 🔗
Manual Acupuncture for Optic Atrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"This systematic review aims to critically evaluate the efficacy of manual acupuncture for optic atrophy. Eight English and Chinese databases, including Cochrane Library, EMbase, PubMed, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), as well as ongoing trials registered with the WHO ..."
Zhi F., Liu J. et al. (2019) Manual Acupuncture for Optic Atrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019:1735967. 🔗
Is acupuncture an effective postherpetic neuralgia treatment? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...Results: Acupuncture helps relieve pain intensity (standardized mean difference [SMD]: -1.78, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -2.36 to -1.21). For other intervention types, electroacupuncture (SMD: -1.28, 95% CI: -2.51 to -0.05), fire needle (SMD: -2.23, 95% CI: -2.62 to -1.84), bloodletting and cupping (SMD: -2.46, 95% CI: -2.95 to -1.97) have better effects on pain intensity relief. To date, no study has reported on the onset of pain relief time. The Hamilton Anxiety Scale score (SMD: -18.94, 95% CI: -37.37 to -0.52) was lower for the acupuncture group than for the control group. It was also found that acupuncture can improve quality of life (QOL) (SMD: 3.78, 95% CI: 2.50 to 5.06). The quality of evidence for acupuncture for PHN pain intensity was moderate according to the GRADE system. ..."
Pei W., Zeng J. et al. (2019) Is acupuncture an effective postherpetic neuralgia treatment? A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Pain Res. 2019;12:2155-2165. 🔗
Laser Acupuncture for Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trials.
"...Results: Of 357 studies, seven RCTs (totaling 395 patients) met the inclusion criteria. The short-term outcomes showed that laser acupuncture offered significant pain relief over placebo when assessed by the 100 mm visual analog scale (VAS) pain score ( = 0.02), while there was no significant difference between laser acupuncture and placebo based on Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (WOMAC) pain score ( = 0.25). For subgroup analysis, laser acupuncture had superiority over placebo in terms of both VAS and WOMAC pain scores in the appropriate technical features subgroup and the excellent methodological quality subgroup. But the effect of laser acupuncture on pain relief was not maintained in terms of either VAS ( = 0.19) or WOMAC pain score ( = 0.60). The pooled effect showed no significant difference between laser acupuncture and placebo at either time point according to WOMAC function scale, WOMAC stiffness scale, and quality of life outcome. ..."
Chen Z., Ma C. et al. (2019) Laser Acupuncture for Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2019:6703828. 🔗
Systematic review of acupuncture placebo devices with a focus on the credibility of blinding of healthy participants and/or acupuncturists.
"...RESULTS: The synthesised analyses of the 15 included studies showed that the Streitberger and Park placebo devices may not blind participants successfully when tested at a sensitive acupuncture point (LI4). In terms of penetrating sensation, there were significant differences between these two placebo devices and verum acupuncture when applied at this point. The Takakura device was the only PAD that had the potential to blind the acupuncturist. However, the blinding analyses of all outcome measures were inconsistent. ..."
Zhang G., Zhang C. et al. (2018) Systematic review of acupuncture placebo devices with a focus on the credibility of blinding of healthy participants and/or acupuncturists. Acupunct Med. 2018;36(4):204-214. 🔗
Cupping therapy for treating ankylosing spondylitis: The evidence from systematic review and meta-analysis.
"...RESULTS: A total of 5 RCTs met the inclusion criteria, and most were of low methodological quality. Participants in cupping therapy plus Western medicine group showed significantly greater improvements in the response rate [RR = 1.13, 95%CI (1.06, 1.22), p < 0.01] with low heterogeneity (Chi = 2.88, p = 0.41, I = 0%). Moreover, when compared with western medicine alone, meta-analysis indicated favorable statistically significant effects of cupping therapy plus western medicine on the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI) [MD = -16.63, 95%CI (-17.75, -15.51), p < 0.01] and Bath Ankylosing Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) [MD = -9.93, 95%CI (-10.34, -9.52), p < 0.01], with low heterogeneity (Chi = 0.32, p = 0.85, I = 0% in BASFI; (Chi = 2.46, p = 0.29, I = 19% in BASDAI). Furthermore, when compared with western medicine alone, meta-analysis demonstrated statistically significant effects of cupping therapy plus western medicine on the serum level of ESR [MD = -1.28, 95% CI (-1.44, -1.13), p < 0.01] and the serum level of CRP [MD = -3.97, 95%CI (-4.71, -3.22), p < 0.01], with low heterogeneity (Chi = 0.50, p = 0.78, I = 0% in the serum level of ESR; Chi = 0.19, p = 0.91, I = 0% in the serum level of CRP). ..."
Ma S., Wang Y. et al. (2018) Cupping therapy for treating ankylosing spondylitis: The evidence from systematic review and meta-analysis. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2018;32:187-194. 🔗
Optimizing acupuncture treatment for dry eye syndrome: a systematic review.
"...RESULTS: Nineteen studies with 1126 patients were included. Significant improvements on the Schirmer test (weighted mean difference[WMD], 2.14; 95% confidence interval[CI], 0.93 to 3.34; p = 0.0005) and break up time (BUT) (WMD, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.79 to 1.18; p < 0.00001) were reported. In the subgroup analysis, acupuncture plus AT treatment had a weaker effect in BUT but a stronger effect on the Schirmer test and a better overall effect than acupuncture alone. For treatment duration, treatment longer than 1 month was more effective than shorter treatment. With regard to treatment frequency, treatment less than three times a week was more effective than more frequent treatment. In the acupoint analysis, acupuncture treatment including the BL2 and ST1 acupoints was less effective than treatment that did not include them. None of those factors reduced the heterogeneity. ..."
Kim B., Kim M. et al. (2018) Optimizing acupuncture treatment for dry eye syndrome: a systematic review. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2018;18(1):145. 🔗
Effects of Cupping Therapy in Amateur and Professional Athletes: Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"...RESULTS: Eleven trials with n = 498 participants from China, the United States, Greece, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates were included, reporting effects on different populations, including soccer, football, and handball players, swimmers, gymnasts, and track and field athletes of both amateur and professional nature. Cupping was applied between 1 and 20 times, in daily or weekly intervals, alone or in combination with, for example, acupuncture. Outcomes varied greatly from symptom intensity, recovery measures, functional measures, serum markers, and experimental outcomes. Cupping was reported as beneficial for perceptions of pain and disability, increased range of motion, and reductions in creatine kinase when compared to mostly untreated control groups. The majority of trials had an unclear or high risk of bias. None of the studies reported safety. ..."
Bridgett R., Klose P. et al. (2018) Effects of Cupping Therapy in Amateur and Professional Athletes: Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. J Altern Complement Med. 2018;24(3):208-219. 🔗
Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Treatment of Postoperative Ileus in Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
"Delays in recovery of intestinal function following abdominal surgery are associated with longer hospital stays, increased postoperative complications, and higher costs to the health care system. Studies of acupuncture for postoperative ileus and other postoperative issues have reported improvements. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess whether acupuncture assisted recovery following surgery for ..."
Liu Y., May B. et al. (2018) Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Treatment of Postoperative Ileus in Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2018:3178472. 🔗
Acupuncture for Acne Vulgaris: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
"...Results: Twelve RCTs were included in the qualitative review and 10 RCTs were included in meta-analysis. Methodological quality of trials was generally low. The chance of achieving ≥30% change in lesion count in the acupuncture group was no different to the pharmacotherapy group (RR: 1.07 [95% CI 0.98, 1.17]; = 8%) and ≥50% change in lesion count in the acupuncture group was not statistically different to the pharmacotherapy group (RR: 1.07 [95% CI 0.98, 1.17]; = 50%). ..."
Mansu S., Liang H. et al. (2018) Acupuncture for Acne Vulgaris: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2018:4806734. 🔗
Cupping therapy versus acupuncture for pain-related conditions: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials and trial sequential analysis.
"...RESULTS: Twenty-three randomized trials with 2845 participants were included covering 12 pain-related conditions. All included studies were of poor methodological quality. Three meta-analyses were conducted, which showed similar clinical beneficial effects of cupping therapy and acupuncture for the rate of symptom improvement in cervical spondylosis (RR 1.13, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.26; n = 646), lateral femoral cutaneous neuritis (RR 1.10, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.22; n = 102) and scapulohumeral periarthritis (RR 1.31, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.51; n = 208). Results from other outcomes (such as visual analogue and numerical rating scale) in each study also showed no statistical significant difference between these two therapies for all included pain-related conditions. The results of TSA for cervical spondylosis demonstrated that the current available data have not reached a powerful conclusion. No serious adverse events related to cupping therapy or acupuncture was found in included studies. ..."
Zhang Y., Cao H. et al. (2017) Cupping therapy versus acupuncture for pain-related conditions: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials and trial sequential analysis. Chin Med. 2017;12:21. 🔗
Systematic Review of Adverse Effects: A Further Step towards Modernization of Acupuncture in China.
"As a further step towards the modernization of acupuncture, the objective of this review was to figure out the frequency and severity of adverse complications and events in acupuncture treatment reported from 1980 to 2013 in China. All first-hand case reports of acupuncture-related complications and adverse events that could be identified in the scientific literature were ..."
Wu J., Hu Y. et al. (2015) Systematic Review of Adverse Effects: A Further Step towards Modernization of Acupuncture in China. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015:432467. 🔗
Acupuncture safety in patients receiving anticoagulants: a systematic review.
"...RESULTS: Of 39 potentially relevant citations, 11 met inclusion criteria: 2 randomized trials, 4 case series, and 5 case reports. Seven provided reporting quality sufficient to assess acupuncture safety in 384 anticoagulated patients (3974 treatments). Minor-moderate bleeding related to acupuncture in an anticoagulated patient occurred in one case: a large hip hematoma, managed with vitamin K reversal and warfarin discontinuation following reevaluation of its medical justification. Blood-spot bleeding, typical for any needling/injection and controlled with pressure/cotton, occurred in 51 (14.6%) of 350 treatments among a case series of 229 patients. Bleeding deemed unrelated to acupuncture during anticoagulation, and more likely resulting from inappropriately deep needling damaging tissue or from complex anticoagulation regimens, occurred in 5 patients. No bleeding was reported in 2 studies (74 anticoagulated patients): 1 case report and 1 randomized trial prospectively monitoring acupuncture-associated bleeding as an explicit end point. Altogether, 1 moderate bleeding event occurred in 3974 treatments (0.003%). ..."
Mcculloch M., Nachat A. et al. (2015) Acupuncture safety in patients receiving anticoagulants: a systematic review. Perm J. 2015;19(1):68-73. 🔗
Sham control methods used in ear-acupuncture/ear-acupressure randomized controlled trials: a systematic review.
"Ear-acupuncture/ear-acupressure (EAP) has been used for a range of health conditions with numerous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating its efficacy and safety. However, the design of sham interventions in these RCTs varied significantly. This study systematically reviewed RCTs on EAP for all clinical conditions involving a number of sham EAPs as a control ..."
Zhang C., Yang A. et al. (2014) Sham control methods used in ear-acupuncture/ear-acupressure randomized controlled trials: a systematic review. J Altern Complement Med. 2014;20(3):147-61. 🔗
Revised STandards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA): extending the CONSORT statement.
"The STRICTA (Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture) reporting guidelines, first published in 2001 [1–9], were designed to improve the completeness and transparency of reporting of interventions in controlled trials of acupuncture, in order that such trials may be more accurately interpreted and readily replicated. STRICTA comprised a checklist that expanded the generic ..."
MacPherson H., Altman D. et al. (2010) Revised STandards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA): extending the CONSORT statement. PLoS Med. 2010;7(6):e1000261. 🔗