Traditional Chinese medicine for frozen shoulder: An evidence‐based guideline

Qin X, Sun K, Ao Y, Liu J, Wang M, Deng Q, Zhong W, liu J, Sun S, Liu X, Shi B, Guan X, Du S, Zou J, Wu C, Chen F, Fang Y, Nie X, Mo W, Guo J, Zhang Y, Dong Y, Wei X, Zhu L · Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine · 2023 April 05

DOI 10.1111/jebm.12530

Objective

To investigate the development of an evidence-based guideline for treating frozen shoulder with traditional Chinese medicine.

Conclusions

The study concludes that a multidisciplinary guideline development panel has developed twelve recommendations for the treatment of frozen shoulder with traditional Chinese medicine, including the use of manual therapy, acupuncture, exercise therapy, and integrated TCM and Western medicine practices.

Critical Appraisal

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Insights

Guidelines have been developed for treating frozen shoulder using traditional Chinese medicine, with multiple therapies such as acupuncture and exercise recommended.

The development of evidence-based guidelines followed internationally recognized standards and used the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach to determine the certainty of evidence and the strength of recommendations. A multidisciplinary group formed the development panel, who took into account benefits, harms, availability of resources, accessibility, and other factors. Nine clinical queries were defined after conducting a systematic literature review and a face-to-face meeting. The guideline panel reached a consensus on twelve recommendations which included treatments like manual therapy, acupuncture, needle knife, Cheezheng Xiaotong plaster, Gutong plaster, exercise therapy and an integrated approach of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Their strength ranged from weakly recommended to consensus based. This new guideline targets clinicians and health administrators.