Effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for post-stroke spasticity: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Xue C, Jiang C, Zhu Y, Liu X, Zhong D, Li Y, Zhang H, Tang W, She J, Xie C, Li J, Feng Y, Jin R · Frontiers in Neurology · 2022 August 17
DOI 10.3389/fneur.2022.942597
Objective
This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to comprehensively evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for post-stroke spasticity.
Conclusions
Acupuncture could be recommended as adjuvant therapy for spasticity after stroke. However, due to the high risk of bias and heterogeneity of the included studies, the effectiveness of acupuncture for post-stroke spasticity remains to be confirmed.
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Insights
Acupuncture added to conventional rehabilitation has been found more effective in reducing post-stroke spasticity than conventional rehabilitation alone.
In this systematic review and meta-analysis, a charge was led to determine the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for post-stroke spasticity. A comprehensive search across nine electronic databases was carried out up to June 2022. Identification was focused on randomized-controlled trials that scrutinized the potency and safety garnered from acupuncture for post-stroke spasticity. An independent screening of studies was initiated by two reviewers who also took charge of data extraction and bias risk assessment. Software tools were employed for statistical analysis of data.
Out of the search, 88 studies deemed eligible were included amounting to a total of 6,431 participants. Pooled data illustrated that there was a beneficial effect when combining acupuncture and conventional rehabilitation, surpassing the results obtained from conventional rehabilitation alone. Subgroup analysis underscored that acquiring acupuncture either once or twice a day had superior results than conventional rehabilitation. The antispasmodic effect seemed to improve with more treatment sessions. A small number of studies explicitly pointed out slight adverse events related to acupuncture.
