title: The effectiveness of acupuncture in postoperative gastroparesis syndrome--a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Postoperative gastroparesis syndrome (PGS) which is mainly manifested as delayed gastric emptying is often caused by upper abdominal and sometimes lower abdominal surgery. In view of the side effects of drugs therapy, the search of supplementary and alternative has been of increasing interest.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This paper included a systematic review and meta-analysis on the use of acupuncture and acupoints selection in PGS. Quality for meta-analysis was evaluated using GRADE while each trial was assessed with CONSORT and STRICTA for TCM.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing acupuncture with non-acupuncture treatment were identified from databases PubMed, EBSCO, Ovid, Cochrane, CNKI and Wanfangdata. Meta-analysis on eligible studies was performed using fixed-effects model with RevMan 5.2. Results were expressed as relative risk (RR) for dichotomous data, and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 348 studies reviewed, 16 RCTs met the inclusion criteria for review while 7 RCTs, 188 patients (intervention) and 182 patients (control) met the criteria for meta-analysis. Both acupuncture and acupuncture combined with medication showed significant higher total effective rate than control (usual care/medication); with (RR 1.27, 95% CI 1.13, 1.44; P<0.0001) and (RR 1.37, 95% CI 1.18, 1.58; P<0.0001) respectively. All included RCTs reported positive effect of acupuncture in PGS treatment. ST36, CV12 and PC6 seemed to be the common acupoints selected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggested acupuncture might be effective to improve PGS, however, a definite conclusion could not be drawn due to low quality of trials. Further large-scale, high-quality randomized clinical trials are needed to validate this.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  PROSPERO CRD42013005485.
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Kah Bik
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Cheong
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Ji-ping
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, Guangdong, China. Electronic address: nanfanglihuang@163.com.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D015669:Acupuncture Points; D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D018589:Gastroparesis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Acupuncture; Meta-analysis; Postoperative gastroparesis syndrome; Systematic review