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Published:
Sep 6, 2024Keywords:
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Main Article Content
Efficacy of acupuncture combined with medication in the treatment of sciatica: A systematic review and metaanalysis of randomized clinical trials
Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of acupuncture combined with medication in the treatment of
sciatica using a systematic review approach.
Methods: Databases such as CNKI, Wanfang database, VIP, and PubMed were searched using
keywords which include "acupuncture", "electro-acupuncture”, "millimeters", "non-steroidal antiinflammatory analgesic drugs", "corticosteroids", “sciatica”, and "vitamins", to identify relevant literature
on the treatment of sciatica using acupuncture and moxibustion combined with drugs. The review
adopted the Review Manager 5.3 software for meta-analysis of all data.
Results: The combined effect size RR = 1.12, Z = 3.5 (p < 0.05), 95 % CI (1.05, 1.20) in the forest plot
of overall effectiveness rate. Also, combined diamond of the effective outcome in the forest plot was
located on the right side of the midline, the combined effect size STD = -1.25, Z = 7.1 (p < 0.00001), 95
% CI (-1.59, -0.90) in the forest plot of VAS scores.
Conclusion: Acupuncture combined with medication treatment reduces pain, and improves total
effectiveness and cure rate of sciatica treatment. The exact efficacy still needs to be confirmed by largescale and multi-center randomized controlled trials (RCT).
