Wrist-Ankle Acupuncture for the Treatment of Pain Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Routine acupuncture incorporates wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) for its analgesic effect, but WAA is not widely used in clinics due to incomplete knowledge of its effectiveness and concerns about less clinical research and because less people know it. This study aimed to assess the efficacy and possible adverse effects of WAA or WAA adjuvants in the treatment of pain symptoms. This study compared WAA or WAA adjuvant with the following therapies: western medication (WM), sham acupuncture (SA), or body acupuncture (BA). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were searched systematically in related electronic databases by two independent reviewers. 33 RCTs were finally included, in which 7 RCTs were selected for meta-analysis. It was found that WAA or WAA adjuvant was significantly more effective than WM, SA, or BA in pain relief. There was nothing different between WAA and SA in adverse events, but WAA was marginally significantly safer than WM. Although both WAA and WAA adjuvant appeared to be more effective than WM, SA, or BA in the treatment of pain symptoms with few side effects, further studies with better and more rigorously designed are still necessary to ensure the efficacy and safety issue of WAA due to the poor methodology and small sample size of previous studies.

Electroacupuncture ameliorates learning and memory in rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury by inhibiting oxidative stress and promoting p-CREB expression in the hippocampus

“…Acupuncture is a simple, convenient and cost-effective treatment strategy originating from ancient China, which has been widely used for thousands of years to treat various diseases (21)(22)(23). Previous studies have demonstrated the clinical efficacy of acupuncture in stroke and rehabilitation of post-stroke cognitive impairment (24)(25)(26)(27).…”

Analgesia no ombro pela técnica de acupuntura do microssistema punho-tornozelo (TPT), complementada por acupuntura sistêmica e moxabustão - estudo de casos

“…Diversos autores descrevem bons resultados com a acupuntura tradicional ou sistêmica para controle da ombralgia 6,7,8 . Alguns microssistemas da acupuntura também tem demostrado resultados satisfatórios nas síndromes dolorosas tais como auriculoterapia 10 , quiroacupuntura 11 , ou craneoacupuntura 12 .…”

“…A acupuntura sistêmica ou tradicional, apresentase como tratamento eficaz para as ombralgias decorrentes em especial de estágios crônicos 6,7 , como também em pós-operatório de ombro 8 . No entanto, para sua aplicação da maneira tradicional, demanda uma avaliação minuciosa, demorada muitas vezes e que necessita estrutura para acomodação adequada do paciente em macas, por exemplo, o que dificulta sua detalhada execução em ambiente hospitalar, ou em caso de emergência.…”

Acupuncture for the Relief of Chronic Pain: A Synthesis of Systematic Reviews

“…We found 20 SRs of acupuncture for chronic pain irrespective of aetiology or pathophysiology. In 2014, SRs reported that evidence supported the efficacy of wrist-ankle acupuncture and auricular acupuncture for alleviating chronic pain [30,31]. Since then, SRs were generally inconclusive because of methodological shortcomings and small sample sizes in primary studies [32][33][34][35][36].…”