Auricular acupressure combined with acupuncture showed the highest effectiveness in reducing post-hemorrhoidectomy pain.
A systematic review and network meta-analysis was used to identify the comparative efficiency of various acupuncture-related techniques for pain relief following hemorrhoidectomy. Searches were conducted across several databases, including MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Library Chinese biomedical database, and China journal full-text database, from January 1, 1996, to February 1, 2020. The search targeted randomized controlled trials assessing the effectiveness of acupuncture and related techniques. The Cochrane risk of bias instrument and GRADE were used to determine the quality of the included trials, and the data were processed using a random-effects model.
The study analyzed 107 randomized controlled trials, assessing the relative effectiveness of 40 treatments technique and 48 randomized controlled trials were used to analyze a responder rate. The results showed that Auricular acupressure plus acupuncture, acupuncture, other acupuncture techniques and auricular acupressure were significantly more effective than usual care. Furthermore, auricular acupressure plus acupuncture emerged as the most effective treatment. An additional round of analysis that focused on pain intensity was carried out, using 72 of the original randomized controlled trials. This study found that offering eight treatments had a higher effectiveness compared to usual care, with auricular acupressure plus acupuncture emerging as the most potent relief method.
