title: Effectiveness of acupuncture in treatment of facial spasm: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Facial spasm is one of the common facial diseases, especially in the aged. It is mostly characterized by initially progressive, involuntary, irregular, recurrent, clonic, or tonic movements of muscles innervated by the facial nerve on one side. Acupuncture is a low-risk treatment with purported claims of effectiveness for facial spasm.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the efficacy of acupuncture in facial spasm comprehensively.
  
  
  METHODS
  The research team conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of all randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that examined the effectiveness of acupuncture for facial spasm.
  
  
  METHODS
  The research team categorized results from each of the reviewed studies in two ways: (1) the number of participants who showed a positive response to therapy (total effectiveness rate) and (2) the number of participants who made a full recovery (clinical cure rate).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The research team reviewed a total of 13 studies involving 1262 participants with facial spasm. Researchers in China had conducted all studies, and most studies were poor in methodological quality. All studies reported that acupuncture was superior to other treatments, including carbamazepine, mecobalamin, and massage, and the meta-analysis on these low-quality studies yielded similar results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Present trials evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture in treatment of facial spasm are mostly poor in methodological quality. These studies showed that acupuncture was superior to other treatments for facial spasm; however, in its meta-analysis, the research team could not draw an affirmative conclusion as to the benefits of acupuncture due to the poor methodological quality and localized population of the included trials. The field needs large international, well-conducted RCTs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Dujiangyan People's Hospital, Dujiangyan Medical Center, China.
authors.forename: Qiang-ping
authors.initials: QP
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Ding
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lei
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D020330:Bell Palsy / Q000628:therapy*; D005152:Facial Muscles; D005155:Facial Nerve Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012107:Research Design; D016896:Treatment Outcome