Research progress of acupuncture and the related adjuvant therapy for promoting pressure ulcer healing in recent 10 years

Abstract

To summarize the research progress of acupuncture-moxibustion and the related adjuvant therapy for promoting pressure ulcer healing in recent 10 years and explore the future research direction. By retrieving Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CNKI), VIP Database (VIP) and PubMed database, dated from January 2008 through to December 2017, the articles for the treatment of pressure ulcers with acupuncture-moxibustion and the related adjuvant therapy were collected. In terms of clinical research and experimental research, the research progress and the related effect mechanisms were analyzed and summarized. Through screening, 78 articles for the treatment of pressure ulcer with acupuncture-moxibustion and the adjuvant therapy were collected finally, of which, 71 articles were Chinese and 7 articles were English. The therapies with the highest frequency for pressure ulcer were the simple moxibustion or moxibusiton combined with other adjuvant measures. The local surrounding needling therapy, electroacupuncture, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and laser therapy were followed by regarding the use frequency. All of these interventions promoted the healing of pressure ulcers to different degrees. The underlying mechanisms were related to the regulation of the local blood perfusion, differentiation and migration of vascular endothelial growth factor, angiogenesis, superoxide dismutase SOD and eNOS/NO signaling pathway so as to promote tissue migration and proliferation. Acupuncture-moxibustion and the related adjuvant therapies achieve the definite therapeutic effects on pressure ulcers. The researches on the treatment of pressure ulcers at home and abroad are diversified, but it is still limited in the research on the effect mechanism.