BackgroundAcupuncture has been applied to relieve low back pain (LBP) in many countries. However, a bibliometric analysis of the global use of acupuncture for LBP is rare.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to demonstrate the state of the art and trends concerning the global use of acupuncture for LBP in recent 20 years.MethodsLiterature relating to acupuncture for LBP from 1997 to 2016 was retrieved from Web of Science. CiteSpace was used to analyze country/institution, cited journals, authors/cited authors, cited references, and keywords. An analysis of counts and centrality was used to reveal publication outputs, countries/institutions, core journals, active authors, foundation references, hot topics, and frontiers.ResultsA total of 958 references were obtained, and the total number of publications continually increased over the investigated period. Journal articles (662) were the most frequently occurring document type. The most productive country and institution in this field was the USA (342) and Harvard University (47), respectively. The J Altern Complem Med (69) was the most productive journal, and Pain (636) was the most cocited journal, which reflected the nature of the research. The Haake’s (2007) article (cocitation counts: 130) and the Cherkin’s (2001) article (centrality: 0.59) were the most representative and symbolic references, with the highest cocitation number and centrality, respectively. Cherkin was the most influential author, with the highest number of publications of 25 and a cocitation number of 226. The four hot topics in acupuncture for LBP were research method, evaluation, economy, and comprehensive therapy. The three frontier topics were intervention, test reliability, and prevalence.ConclusionThis study provides an insight into acupuncture for LBP and valuable information for acupuncture researchers to identify new perspectives on potential collaborators and cooperative institutions, hot topics, and research frontiers.

Acupuncture is widely used to relieve shoulder pain. A survey was conducted in order to recognize hotspots and frontiers of acupuncture for shoulder pain from the year 2000-2022. Methods: The Web of Science Core Collection was used to collect literature related to acupuncture therapy for shoulder pain, which spanned January 2000 to August 2022. The number of publications yearly, countries/institutions, journals, and keywords was analyzed and visualized in shoulder pain with acupuncture therapy by CiteSpace v.5.7.R5. Results: We totally analyzed 214 articles that met the inclusion criteria. The overall trend of publication volume continues to increase. The most productive authors in the field were César Fernández las Peñas and José L Arias-Buría, and the most influential author was Green S. Kyung Hee University and the People's Republic of China had the highest volume of publications, respectively. The most influential journal is Pain with high citation and impact factor. The hot keywords were "acupuncture", "shoulder pain", "dry needling", "randomized trial", and "injection". The research frontier in acupuncture for treating chronic shoulder pain was mainly "mechanism". Conclusion: Over the last 22 years, the findings of this bibliometric analysis have provided research trends and frontiers in clinical research on acupuncture therapy for patients with shoulder pain, which identifying hot topics and exploring new directions for the future may be helpful to researchers. Studying mechanisms underlying acupuncture therapy for shoulder pain remains a focus of future research.

BackgroundAcupuncture is an effective complement to pharmacological therapy in the alleviation of chronic pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). It has mild or no side effects; however, a minimum of 3 months of therapy is required to guarantee a beneficial outcome. This study investigates why patients insist on acupuncture therapy to aid recuperation.MethodsThe study included a purposive sample of 15 participants diagnosed with chronic PID who had received a course of acupuncture therapy at least twice a week for a minimum of 3 months. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed, coded and analyzed using systematic text condensation.ResultsFour overarching themes were identified from the participants’ reasons for insisting on lengthy, but in their view important, acupuncture courses. The four overarching themes were: (1) the patients’ characteristics, including pregnancy aspiration and the fear of serious gynecological disease; (2) the patient–practitioner relationship, including the acupuncturist’s attitude towards the patients and the explanation of the disease from a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) perspective; (3) the characteristics of acupuncture, including the diversification of treatment modes, the synthetical effect, and no side-effects; and (4) the clinical environment, including the exchange of experience between patients and the well-equipped setting.ConclusionsThere were mixed reasons for patients diagnosed with chronic PID maintaining acupuncture treatments. Knowledge and understanding about the acupuncture-disease relationship were conducive to the patients’ preference for acupuncture. Acupuncture as a complement to Western medicine should be further developed while maintaining these positive features. Participants reported feeling hope, confidence, and a sense of responsibility for their treatment during the process, although the treatments did not always have the expected outcome.