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Review
. 2016:2016:5105108.
doi: 10.1155/2016/5105108. Epub 2016 May 16.

Moxibustion for Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Bozong Tang  1 , Jianliang Zhang  2 , Zongguo Yang  2 , Yunfei Lu  2 , Qingnian Xu  2 , Xiaorong Chen  2 , Jiang Lin  3
Affiliations
Review

Moxibustion for Diarrhea-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Bozong Tang et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2016.

Abstract

Background. The complementary and alternative medicines in treatment of diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D) are controversial. Methods. We searched PubMed, Ovid Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library databases, CNKI, Wanfang Database, CBM, VIP, and AMED for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of moxibustion compared with pharmacological medications in patients with IBS-D. A meta-analysis was performed using both fixed and random-effects models based on heterogeneity across studies. Results. In total, 568 patients in 7 randomized controlled trials were randomly treated with moxibustion and pharmacological medications. The improvement of global IBS-D symptoms and overall scores was significant (P = 0.0001 and P < 0.0001, resp.) in patients treated by moxibustion only compared to pharmacological medications. The specific IBS-D symptoms of abdominal pain, abdominal distension, abnormal stool, and defecation frequency were alleviated in patients treated by moxibustion compared to pharmacological medications, but no significance was found except for abdominal distension and defecation frequency (P = 0.03 and P = 0.02, resp.). There were no serious adverse events related to moxibustion. Conclusions. Moxibustion appears to be effective in treating IBS-D compared with pharmacological medications. However, further large, rigorously designed trials are warranted due to insufficient methodological rigor in the included trials.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the study selection process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk of bias assessment.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Improvement of overall IBS-D symptoms and scores.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Improvement of specific IBS-D symptoms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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