2018 Acupuncture in Medicine

Acupuncture showed a more favourable effect in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation than lumbar traction, ibuprofen, diclofenac sodium and meloxicam.

Thirty RCTs involving 3503 participants were included in the study. Meta-analysis showed that acupuncture had a higher total effective rate than lumbar traction, ibuprofen, diclofenac sodium and meloxicam. Acupuncture was also better than lumbar traction and diclofenac sodium in terms of visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, and better than lumbar traction with respect to Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) scores.

In addition, the total effective rate in five individual trials was greater for acupuncture than for mannitol plus dexamethasone and mecobalamin, ibuprofen plus fugui gutong capsule, loxoprofen, mannitol plus dexamethasone and huoxue zhitong decoction, respectively. Additionally, two individual trials showed a superior effect of acupuncture in VAS scores comparedwith ibuprofen or mannitol plus dexamethasone, respectively.

Acupuncture for Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Tang S, Mo Z, Zhang R

2017 Acupuncture in Medicine

Acupuncture may be effective at relieving chronic knee pain 12 weeks after acupuncture administration.

Nineteen trials were included in this systematic review. Of these, data from 17 studies were available for analysis. Regarding the effectiveness of acupuncture alone or combined with other treatment, the results of the meta-analysis showed that acupuncture was associated with significantly reduced CKP at 12 weeks on WOMAC pain subscale and VAS. As for safety, no difference was found between the acupuncture and control groups.

Updated systematic review and meta-analysis of acupuncture for chronic knee pain Zhang Q, Yue J, Golianu B, Sun Z, Lu Y.

2016 Complementary Medicine Research

Acupuncture therapy is more effective than NSAID in improving clinical efficacy rates and pain scores for treatment of chrondomalacia patellae.

To our knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis of acupuncture therapy in the treatment of CMP. Seven RCT involving 707 patients with CMP were selected for this meta-analysis. Based on the findings of the present systematic review, acupuncture therapy can further improve the clinical effect and pain scores when compared with NSAID controls. However, the potential beneficial effect of acupuncture is possibly overstated owing to the low general methodological quality of the included RCT. Conclusions regarding the safety of acupuncture therapy cannot be drawn since the eligible trials provide no evidence on this aspect.

Acupuncture Versus Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs for Treatment of Chondromalacia Patellae: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials Lv Z.-T.a · Li Z.-Q.b · Zhou X.c · Ma W.-W.d · Zhang J.-M.a · Chen A.-M

2015 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Acupuncture may be effective in treating the pain associated with sciatica.

A total of 12 studies (involving 1842 participants) were included. Results showed that acupuncture was more effective than conventional Western medicine (CWM) in outcomes effectiveness, pain intensity, and pain threshold. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis found that the results did not change in different treatment method and drug categories substantially. The reported adverse effects were acceptable.

The Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Sciatica: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Ji M, Wang X, Chen M, Shen Y, Zhang X, Yang J

2015 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

The use of acupuncture may be more effective than drugs and may enhance the effect of drugs for patients with sciatica.

The results of this systematic review suggest that the use of acupuncture may more effectively relieve leg pain/lumbago and improve global assessment of sciatica when compared with NSAID (ibuprofen, meloxicam, and diclofenac) treatment. Moreover, adjuvant acupuncture may enhance the effect of medications in leg pain/lumbago relief. To patients, acupuncture points appear more effective than nonacupoints. Acupuncture is relatively safe and is rarely associated with serious adverse events in patients with sciatica. However, this meta-analysis was lacking in relevant and rigorous RCTs. Because the evidence was limited, higher quality and more rigorously designed clinical trials with larger sample sizes will be needed to further confirm our findings.

Effectiveness of Acupuncture for Treating Sciatica: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Zongshi Qin, Xiaoxu Liu, Jiani Wu, Yanbing Zhai, Zhishun Liu,

2014 BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies

The use of acupuncture for osteoarthritis is associated with significant reductions in pain intensity, improvement in functional mobility and quality of life.

In this systematic review, we found acupuncture administered to adults with osteoarthritis to be associated with a statistically significant reduction in pain intensity, improved functional mobility and improved health-related quality of life. Reductions in pain were greater in trials with longer intervention periods. Though under-reported and inconsistently described, major adverse events with acupuncture were not reported. Subgroup analyses suggest that acupuncture is most effective for reducing osteoarthritic pain when administered for more than four weeks. Outcome assessment for the majority of trials occurred immediately following the intervention period and thus the durability of treatment effects are unknown.

Pain management with acupuncture in osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Manyanga, T., Froese, M., Zarychanski, R. et al.

2012 Acupuncture in Medicine

There is evidence supporting the effectiveness of acupuncture for plantar heel pain comparable to that available for conventionally used interventions, such as stretching, night splints or dexamethasone.

Five randomised controlled trials and three non-randomised comparative studies were included. High quality studies report significant benefits. In one, acupuncture was associated with significant improvement in pain and function when combined with standard treatment (including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs). In another, acupuncture point PC7 improved pain and pressure pain threshold significantly more than LI4. Other papers were of lower quality but suggest benefits from other acupuncture approaches.

The Effectiveness of Acupuncture for Plantar Heel Pain: A Systematic Review Clark RJ, Tighe M