Sciatica

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Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

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

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

Acupuncture may be effective in treating the pain associated with sciatica.

2015 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine The Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Sciatica: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Ji M, Wang X, Chen M, Shen Y, Zhang X, Yang J

Chinese Medicine Research Hub

Systematic Review

The use of acupuncture may be more effective than drugs and may enhance the effect of drugs for patients with sciatica.

2015 Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Effectiveness of Acupuncture for Treating Sciatica: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Zongshi Qin, Xiaoxu Liu, Jiani Wu, Yanbing Zhai, Zhishun Liu,

Executive Summary

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Research into Chinese medicine treatment for Sciatica" summarising the research below and using language that can be easily understood by patients and avoiding medical jargon using a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Researched Chinese medicine treatments for Sciatica" summarising the research below in an objective and easy to understand way, and using language that can be easily understood by patients. Group the article into Chinese medicine treatments first, followed by nutrition and other treatments. Avoid using medical jargon and use a professional and caring tone of voice.

Write me a concise but easy to understand executive summary on the topic of "Chinese medicine treatments for Sciatica" based on the following research that I will give you. Your summary should be 2 paragraphs long in Australian English spelling and include references to the studies.

A Systematic Review published in 2018 in the journal Acupuncture in Medicine found that Acupuncture showed a more favourable effect in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation than lumbar traction, ibuprofen, diclofenac sodium and meloxicam. 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.

A Systematic Review published in 2015 in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that Acupuncture may be effective in treating the pain associated with sciatica. A total of 12 studies (involving 1842 participants) were included. Results showed that acupuncture was more effective than conventional Western medicine (CWM) in outcomes effectiveness, pain intensity, and pain threshold. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis found that the results did not change in different treatment method and drug categories substantially. The reported adverse effects were acceptable.

A Systematic Review published in 2015 in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that The use of acupuncture may be more effective than drugs and may enhance the effect of drugs for patients with sciatica. The results of this systematic review suggest that the use of acupuncture may more effectively relieve leg pain/lumbago and improve global assessment of sciatica when compared with NSAID (ibuprofen, meloxicam, and diclofenac) treatment. Moreover, adjuvant acupuncture may enhance the effect of medications in leg pain/lumbago relief. To patients, acupuncture points appear more effective than nonacupoints. Acupuncture is relatively safe and is rarely associated with serious adverse events in patients with sciatica. However, this meta-analysis was lacking in relevant and rigorous RCTs. Because the evidence was limited, higher quality and more rigorously designed clinical trials with larger sample sizes will be needed to further confirm our findings.

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