| Accession number;03A0059389 |
| Title;Meta-analysis of Acupuncture Therapy for Relieving Low Back Pain on the Visual Analog Scale. |
| Author;ZHU Y(Beijing Univ., Chinese Medicine And Phaemacy) ORIGASA HIDEKI(Toyamaiyakudai Rinshotokeigaku) WANG Q(Beijing Univ., Chinese Medicine And Phaemacy) |
Journal Title;Japanese Pharmacology & Therapeutics
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Journal Code:Z0947A
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ISSN:0386-3603
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VOL.30;NO.12;PAGE.997-1002(2002)
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| Figure&Table&Reference;FIG.4, TBL.2, REF.11 |
| Pub. Country;Japan |
| Language;Japanese |
| Abstract;Acupuncture has been applied to medical practices within the Chinese traditional medicine for a long time. It was supposed to alleviate the low back pain through low frequency electricity. The purpose of this study is to assess the overall efficacy of acupuncture on low back pain using a meta-analytic method. We used the VAS (visual analog scale) as a measure of the effect on pain relief in a scale of 10 cm. From nine controlled clinical trials selected by Medline or Japanese database on medical articles, Giles study was excluded since it included a therapy of spinal manipulation. Therefore, a total of 8 studies including 394 patients were utilized for the meta-analysis. The efficacy was consistent across studies, favoring acupuncture. The overall efficacy representing the difference between acupuncture and control was 0.33 cm (95% CI: 0.11-0.54cm, p=0.003). Subset analyses by Japanese and English articles showed similar results that indicated the validity of meta-analytic finding. The meta-analysis has shown that acupuncture might be effective to lower the low back pain. Since the total sample size was relatively small, a larger controlled trial is further necessary to conduct. (author abst.) |
