Acupuncture for recovery after surgery in patients undergoing colorectal cancer resection: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Kim KH, Kim DH, Kim HY, Son GM. · Acupuncture in Medicine · 2016 August 1
DOI 10.1136/acupmed-2015-010941
Objective
To assess the efficacy/effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in patients recovering from colorectal cancer resection.
Conclusions
We found low-to moderate-quality evidence for the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for recovery after surgery in colorectal cancer patients.
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Insights
We found low-to moderate-quality evidence for the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for recovery after surgery in colorectal cancer patients.
Of 1225 screened hits, seven randomised trials with 540 participants were included. High or uncertain risk of bias and significant heterogeneity were observed. All outcomes were measured before discharge, and no trial explicitly reported post-discharge outcomes. The response to acupuncture in terms of postoperative symptoms was inconsistent across trials. QoL was not measured in the included studies. For certain outcomes reflecting physiological recovery, favourable effects of acupuncture were observed compared with sham acupuncture, namely time to first flatus and time to first defaecation. Two studies reported there were no acupuncture-related adverse events, whereas the remaining studies did not consider adverse events.
