Insights & Discussion
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.
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Acupuncture showed a more favourable effect in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation than lumbar traction, ibuprofen, diclofenac sodium and meloxicam.
2018 Acupuncture in Medicine Acupuncture for Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Tang S, Mo Z, Zhang R
Systematic Review Lumbar Disc Herniation Lumbar Disc Prolapse Sciatica
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.