Meta-Analysis of Efficacy and Safety of Mongolian Medical Warm Acupuncture in the Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation

Abstract

Objective: To systematically evaluate the safety and efficacy of Mongolian medical warm acupuncture in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH). Methods: CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and other databases were searched. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the treatment of LDH with Mongolian medical warm acupuncture were manually searched in the Chinese Journal of Ethnic Medicine, Chinese Journal of Mongolian Medicine, Journal of Inner Mongolia University for Nationalities, and Journal of Inner Mongolia Medical University. The search time limit was from January 2000 to October 2023. RevMan5.4 software was used to analyze the included and excluded literature. Results: A total of 8 RCTs involving 1,042 patients with LDH were included, with 551 patients in the observation group and 491 patients in the control group. The results of the meta-analysis showed that a total of 8 randomized controlled trials were included in the treatment of LDH with Mongolian medical warm acupuncture compared with simple acupuncture (RR = 1.18, 95% CI = [1.12, 1.23], P < 0.00001). Conclusion: The total effective rate of Mongolian medical warm acupuncture for LDH is higher than that of simple acupuncture. However, due to the low quality of the literature included in this study, multi-dimensional, large sample size, and more rigorous clinical randomized trials are needed for further verification in the future.