title: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 10 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Li Bing
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 10 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Wai Chung
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 10 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Kwai Ching
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1454-1364
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.affiliation: Acupuncture and Tui-na Clinical Centre for Teaching and Research, School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Tin Pui
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Yum
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, 10 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8342-7960
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li