Thrombolysis combined with acupuncture therapy for acute cerebral infarction: a Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract

To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of thrombolysis combined with acupuncture therapy in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction (ACI) in the light of evidence-based medicine. Randomized controlled trials (RCT) for acupuncture and thrombolysis treatment of acute cerebral infarction published from the inception of databa-ses to March 2020 were searched from PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Web of science, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and CBM Database. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, two reviewers independently screened the RCTs and extracted the data. The quality of the included literature was evaluated, and the Meta-analysis was performed by using Revman 5.3 software. A total of 330 studies were identified, and 14 RCTs (including 604 cases of the treatment group, 598 cases of the control group) met the inclusion criteria. The Meta-analysis showed that the thrombolysis combined with acupuncture therapy was better than acupuncture therapy alone in the clinical effective rate (risk ratio ［RR］=1.19, 95% confidence interval ［CI］ ［1.13, 1.25］), NIHSS score (mean difference ［MD］=-3.51, 95% CI ［-4.54, -2.48］), BI index (MD=12.26, 95% CI ［8.07, 16.46］), and in lowering C-reaction protein levels (MD=-3.99, 95% CI ［-4.35, -3.63］). The rate of complete recanalization (RR = 1.20, 95% CI ［1.00, 1.44］), adverse reaction (RR = 0.76, 95% CI ［0.41, 1.41］) and hemorrhagic conversion (RR = 0.72, 95% CI ［0.14, 3.62］) was not statistically significant. The current effective evidence shows that acupuncture has certain advantages in improving the therapeutic effect and safety of thrombolysis in the treatment of ACI patients.