Efficacy and safety of acupoint application in the treatment of ulcerative colitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Tong Y, Yu Y, Yin S, Lin S, Chen Y, Su X · Medicine · 2023 August 18

Objective

To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of acupoint application in the treatment of ulcerative colitis (UC).

Conclusions

Acupoint application demonstrates effectiveness in improving clinical comprehensive and syndrome effective rates, as well as interleukin-4 levels, while reducing interferon-γ levels in UC treatment compared to conventional western medicine. Colonoscopy and pathological examination outcomes and adverse reaction rates were comparable between acupoint application and conventional treatment. The evidence quality varies, with moderate quality for clinical comprehensive and syndrome outcomes, and lower quality for other indicators.

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Insights

Acupoint application has been proven to be a safe and effective method for the treatment of ulcerative colitis.

The methodology incorporated a systematic review of various databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biology Medicine, VIP, Wanfang, Embase, PubMed, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science up to July 2022 to find published randomized controlled trials on the use of acupoint application in treating ulcerative colitis. Meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis were then performed on the selected studies. The results from the 13 analyzed trials involving a total of 878 cases revealed that the use of acupoint application improved the rates of effective clinical comprehensive and syndrome in ulcerative colitis treatment compared to conventional western medicine. The method also showed advantages in increasing interleukin-4 and reducing interferon-gamma. Also noted was that there were no variances seen regarding colonoscopy, pathological examination, and reaction rates when compared with traditional methods. The quality of the evidence used for these conclusions varied, with some being of moderate quality and others deemed low or very low quality.