Abstract
BackgroundWrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) as a kind of micro acupuncture therapy has been used to management cancer pain, however, the effects of WAA on cancer pain were controversial in the current studies. Therefore, the purpose of this meta-analysis was to critically evaluate the effect of wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) on cancer pain.MethodsSeven digital databases were searched from the inception of databases to July 2020, including CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, Cochrane Library, PubMed and Embase. Randomized controlled trials conforming to the inclusion and exclusion criteria were screened and extracted; the risk of bias was evaluated using the Cochrane Collaboration criteria. The primary outcome indicators included pain relief rate and pain score, and the secondary outcome was adverse reaction incidence. All analyses were performed with Review Manager 5.3.ResultsA total of 13 studies with 1005 cancer patients (intervention group: 568, control group: 437) were included in this meta-analysis. The results demonstrated that the pain relief rate of experimental group (WAA / WAA + drug intervention) was better than that of control group (analgesic drug intervention), and the difference was statistically significant [RR = 1.31, 95%CI: 1.15 ~ 1.49, P < 0.01].ConclusionsWAA has certain effect on cancer pain, and the effect of WAA combined with pharmacological intervention is better than that of drug therapy alone.
Highlights
Wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) as a kind of micro acupuncture therapy has been used to management cancer pain, the effects of wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) on cancer pain were controversial in the current studies
The results of meta-analysis by Zheng Yi et al [32] in 2014 indicated that there was no statistical difference between the intervention group (WAA/WAA plus drug therapy group) and the control group in pain relief rate, which may be related to the limited number and poor quality of included studies
Subgroup analysis was conducted based on whether WAA was combined with drug therapy, of which the results showed that there was no statistical difference in pain relief rate between the intervention group (WAA) and control group
Summary
Wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) as a kind of micro acupuncture therapy has been used to management cancer pain, the effects of WAA on cancer pain were controversial in the current studies. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to critically evaluate the effect of wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) on cancer pain. Cancer pain is caused by cancer itself or treatment and psychological factors, which is long-term and lasting [1, 2]. Cancer pain is mainly controlled by opioids, and the commonly used drugs are oxycodone, morphine, fentanyl transdermal patch and codeine [6]. Drug therapy has obvious toxic and side effects, and patients are prone to constipation, vomiting, urinary retention, delirium, dizziness, and other adverse reactions [7]. Non- pharmacological therapies for cancer pain are attracting more and more attention
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