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Moderate-quality evidence revealed an association between acupressure and greater pain relief compared with physical therapy.
2021 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Acupressure on Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Tao Li , Xiaohui Li ,Fan Huang , Qiang Tian , Z. Y. Fan , and S. Wu
Systematic Review Low Back Pain
The systematic review and meta-analysis included 23 RCTs with 2400 participants with low back pain. Consistent with previous systematic reviews, moderate-quality evidence revealed an association between acupressure and greater pain relief compared with physical therapy.
Although rated as very-low to low, poor quality evidence suggested that acupressure, with or without combinative acupuncture therapy, contributed to a greater amelioration of pain and functional disability from low back pain compared with usual care, tuina massage, or acupuncture.
Trial sequential analysis results revealed that adequate studies supported the significance of the clinical response rate of acupressure, with or without combinative acupuncture therapy, compared to other treatments.
Acupuncture could significantly relieve pain and increase cure rate for acute ankle sprain, even producing improved results when combined with other therapies.
2020 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture Therapy for Patients with Acute Ankle Sprain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials Liu AF, Gong SW, Chen JX, Zhai JB
Systematic Review Ankle
The researchers executed parallel-group randomized controlled trials without any language or publication date restraints. Participants suffering from acute ankle sprains were included irrespective of their demographic details, or the diagnostic criteria used to confirm their condition. Experimental interventions consisted of acupuncture alone or a combination of acupuncture and traditional therapies, while the control interventions were either no treatment, placebo, or traditional therapies only. The Kofoed ankle score was the main outcome, with secondary outcomes covering a range of parameters from pain scale to cure rate. Several databases were searched to find potentially eligible studies up to the date of September 10, 2020, with trial registry platforms and the reference lists of the eligible studies also being verified for any ongoing or unpublished studies.
The study analysed seventeen eligible studies to study the effect of acupuncture on acute ankle sprains. No significant difference was found between the Kofoed ankle scores of the acupuncture and Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation (RICE) groups. However, acupuncture did show a significant impact on pain relief and an increased cure rate compared to the RICE group. The combination of acupuncture and RICE also resulted in a significant increase in pain relief and cure rate compared to just the RICE method. Acupuncture, when combined with massage, brought about a significant reduction in pain compared to just massage, while the combination with traditional Chinese medicine outperformed Chinese medicine alone in pain relief, duration of pain, and cure rate. There were almost no adverse reactions reported, with one mild drug-related allergic reaction which healed without any treatment.
Electroacupuncture and manual acupuncture show similar effectiveness in relieving plantar heel pain syndrome with no significant difference between the two modalities.
2020 Acupuncture in Medicine Comparison of electroacupuncture and manual acupuncture for patients with plantar heel pain syndrome: a randomized controlled trial Wang W, Liu Y, Jiao R, Liu S, Zhao J, Liu Z
Randomised Controlled Trial Acupuncture Ankle Pain Heel Pain
In this research, participants were randomly divided into two groups to receive either electroacupuncture (EA) or manual acupuncture (MA) treatments. They underwent a course of 12 treatment sessions over a span of 4 weeks, followed by 24 weeks of follow-up. The study prioritized the assessment of treatment responders, who were identified as patients showcasing at least a 50% reduction from their initial worst pain intensity experienced during the initial steps in the morning after 4 weeks of treatment.
The study encompassed 92 patients diagnosed with PHPS, enlisted between July 2018 and June 2019. A total of 78 patients (85% of the original group) successfully completed both the treatment and follow-up. The results highlight that after the 4-week treatment period, both the EA and MA groups experienced a decrease in heel pain and showed improved plantar function with no serious treatment-related adverse events. Interestingly, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of pain intensity relief or in any secondary outcomes after 4 weeks of treatment and at follow-up points at 16 and 28 weeks.
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
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.
Cupping therapy has demonstrated notable effects in reducing chronic back pain in adults.
2018 Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem Cupping therapy and chronic back pain: systematic review and meta-analysis Moura, C. C., Chaves, É., Cardoso, A., et al.
Systematic Review Back Pain Cupping
The systematic review and meta-analysis involved two independent researchers who examined national and international databases. They also explored the reference lists of additional systematic reviews. The quality of the studies was evaluated using the Jadad scale, a globally recognized tool assessing the methodological quality of clinical trials.
Extracting 16 studies for qualitative review and 10 for quantitative analysis, the research found positive impacts of cupping therapy on chronic back pain in adults. It was noted that there isn't a standardized protocol for treatment with this therapy. The study mainly evaluated outcomes based on factors such as pain intensity, physical incapacity, the quality of life, and the nociceptive threshold before the application of mechanical stimulus. A noteworthy reduction in pain intensity was seen through the use of cupping therapy.
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