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Review
. 2022 Nov 8:2022:6082179.
doi: 10.1155/2022/6082179. eCollection 2022.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture Treatment for Oral Ulcer

Hang Yan  1 , Tianxi Chen  1 , Yuling Zuo  2 , Yang Tu  3 , Huangping Ai  2 , Yuqi Lin  1 , Yongcan Chen  4
Affiliations
Review

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture Treatment for Oral Ulcer

Hang Yan et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. .

Abstract

Background: Oral ulcer (OU) is a common oral mucosal disease manifested with obvious pain. In some studies, the efficacy of acupuncture in OU has been confirmed, but systematic reviews and meta-analyses for them are lacking. Our aim is to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in the treatment of OU.

Methods: We searched the literature from eight databases from their inception to December 2021. We included randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for the treatment of oral ulcer. The meta-analysis was carried out using Review Manager 5.3 and Stata 16.0. The main outcomes were the effective rate and the recurrence rate, the secondary outcomes were the visual analogue score (VAS) and the ulcer healing time.

Results: Totally, 18 studies were finally included in the meta-analysis, including 1,422 patients. In meta-analyses, we found that in comparison with Western medicine, acupuncture can improve effective rate (OR = 5.40, 95% CI: 3.40 to 8.58), reduce the ulcer recurrence rate (OR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.13 to 0.33), and relieve the ulcer pain (MD = -2.26, 95% CI: -4.27to-0.24). In addition, compared with Western medicine, acupuncture plus Western medicine also can improve effective rate (OR = 2.95, 95% CI: 1.48 to 5.85). Compared with the Chinese medicine, the acupuncture plus Chinese medicine can improve the effective rate (OR = 8.26, 95% CI: 3.61 to 18.88) and relieve the ulcer pain (MD = -1.85, 95% CI: -2.51 to -1.19).

Conclusion: Acupuncture may be more effective than Western medicine in terms of efficacy rate, and acupuncture combined with Western or Chinese medicine may have the potential to reduce the recurrence of ulcer and relieve the ulcer pain. However, due to limited evidence, higher quality and more rigorously designed clinical trials with larger sample sizes will be needed to further confirm our findings.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of study selection process and screening results.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Graph of the risk of bias: percentage of all studies included.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The ROB2 risk of bias.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Forest plots of clinical efficacy rate in the three groups.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Forest plots of recurrence rate in the three groups.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Forest plots of visual analogue score (VAS) in the three groups.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Forest plots of healing time in the three groups.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Egger's funnel plot for effective rate (acupuncture vs. western medicine).
Figure 9
Figure 9
Egger's funnel plot for effective rate (acupuncture + western medicine vs. western medicine).
Figure 10
Figure 10
Egger's funnel plot for effective rate (acupuncture + Chinese medicine vs. Chinese medicine).
Figure 11
Figure 11
Egger's funnel plot for recurrence rate (acupuncture vs. western medicine).
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