Efficacy and safety of therapies related to acupuncture for acute herpes zoster: A PRISMA systematic review and network meta-analysis

Liang XY, Chen X, Li XM, Yang S, Wang SY, Ma DD, Guo MM, Zhang H · Medicine · 2024 May 17

Objective

To investigate and rank the clinical efficacy of different acupuncture therapies in the treatment of acute herpes zoster using a network meta-analysis approach.

Conclusions

Acupuncture therapies, particularly electroacupuncture (EA) + pricking and cupping (PC) and EA + fire needle (FN), were found to be effective in improving pain, reducing the duration of herpes increase, and decreasing the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia in acute herpes zoster patients, with acceptable levels of adverse events.

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Insights

Different acupuncture therapies, particularly electroacupuncture combined with pricking and cupping, effectively treat acute Herpes Zoster symptoms.

The study's methodology involved searching various databases, including the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese BioMedical Database, VIP Database, and Wanfang Database, for eligible randomized controlled trials of acupuncture-related therapies for acute Herpes Zoster. Researchers then used Bayesian network meta-analyses via GeMTC and R software to analyze the gathered data. In terms of results, it was found that electroacupuncture combined with pricking and cupping had the best efficacy to improve pain and reduce the progression of herpes. Furthermore, pricking and cupping were highly effective in reducing the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia. The study also noted that the rate of adverse events associated with acupuncture therapies was acceptable. These findings suggest that acupuncture-related therapies were both safe and effective in treating acute Herpes Zoster.