Insights & Discussion
Acupuncture, in its various forms, shows significant potential in alleviating pain and improving shoulder function in patients with rotator cuff disorders.
The participating researchers examined a multitude of sources, involving 12 electronic databases and 3 trial registries until November 2019, poring over any applicable randomized trial regardless of its language or date of publication. The research primarily focused on pain symptoms, the functionality of the shoulder, and the ratio of participants showing improvement within 12 weeks since the initiation of the trial. They adopted the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach to assess the certainty of evidence, while the included studies' bias risks were evaluated using the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Various types of acupuncture were evaluated, including manual acupuncture, dry needling, electroacupuncture, acupotomy, warm needle acupuncture and fire needle acupuncture, extracted from a total of 28 randomized trials involving 2,216 participants.
The results gleaned from these trials suggest that acupuncture could indeed have a significant impact on the relief of pain and the enhancement of shoulder function for patients suffering from rotator cuff diseases. However, discrepancies between the trials resulted in considerable heterogeneity. Despite this, no significant harm was observed amongst the patients. However, due to the level of uncertainty associated with the data and the partialness of the reports, the safety of acupuncture is still up for debate.
Discover Related Insights
Acupuncture appears to have positive effects in pain relief and functional recovery after rotator cuff surgery.
2021 Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation Effects of Acupuncture after Rotator Cuff Surgery: A Systematic Review Lee SJ, Ko YM, Park JS, Park TY, Lee JH, Cho JH, et al.
Systematic Review Rotator Cuff Injury Shoulder Pain
The research method applied to this study involved a comprehensive search of key terms like 'rotator cuff surgery' and 'acupuncture' across ten databases. The focus was on finding suitable randomized controlled trials to study. Once these trials were identified, they were thoroughly analyzed to assess the therapeutic effects of acupuncture after rotator cuff surgery.
The subsequent in-depth analysis of six select randomized controlled trials revealed the positive effect of acupuncture on patients who had undergone rotator cuff surgery. This acupuncture treatment seems beneficial in terms of providing pain relief and aiding in functional recovery of patients post-surgery. Notably, there's mention of a high overall risk of bias in these analyzed trials.
Acupuncture has been shown to significantly improve pain, disability, and quality of life for patients with shoulder impingement syndrome.
2021 Journal of Acupuncture Research Acupuncture Treatment for Shoulder Impingement Syndrome: A Review of Randomized Controlled Trials Park JE, Kim WY, Lee SJ, Oh DY, Lee MC, Jeon MK, et al.
Review Article Rotator Cuff Injury Shoulder Impingement Shoulder Pain
The research methodology involved a literature review of randomized controlled trials where acupuncture was used as an intervention for patients diagnosed with shoulder impingement syndrome. Relevant clinical studies were retrieved from several databases based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the interventions used, and results obtained were diligently analyzed. Six of these studies were chosen for an extensive review based on the stringent parameters defined.
The results of these six studies testify to the apparent efficacy of acupuncture as a treatment for shoulder impingement syndrome. Upon analysis, the acupuncture treatment group consistently demonstrated significant positive changes in metrics evaluating pain, disability, and quality of life. There was an observed decrease in evaluative indicators such as Shoulder Pain and Disability Index, Numeric Rating Scale, Visual Analogue Scale, and others, and a considerable increase in the scores of the self-reported questionnaires like UCLA, AL-score, EuroQol 5 Dimension, and more. One study even reported acupuncture's effectiveness to be on par with corticosteroid injections in terms of improvements in pain and quality of life measures. Notably, no major side effects from acupuncture were reported across the studies.