Warm needle acupuncture treatment for primary osteoporosis: a systematic review

Objective To explore the curative effect of a randomized controlled trial of warm needling moxibustion in treating primary osteoporosis. Methods The databases of CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, Pubmed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched, and the treatment group was included in a randomized controlled trial focusing on warm acupuncture and moxibustion treatment, as of October 1, 2016. Rev Man 5.3 and stata12.0 were used for statistical analysis. Results A total of 23 studies were included, with 1 840 patients. Rev Man's risk assessment of bias showed that the quality of the literature was generally low. Meta-analysis showed that compared with western medicine treatment, warm needling moxibustion or warm needling moxibustion combined therapy has differences in efficacy, pain score, symptom score, lumbar bone density, estradiol (E2), testosterone, etc. (RR=1.22, 95%CI(1.06,1.42),P=0.008], [MD=-1.86,95%CI(-2.32,-1.39),P0.000 01], [SMD=-1.43,95%CI(-2.24, -0.63, P=0.000 5), (SMD=0.61, 95%CI (0.18, 1.03), P=0.000 5), (SMD=0.56, 95%CI (0.26, 0.85), P0.000 1), ( SMD=0.56, 95%CI (0.19, 0.92), P=0.003), in terms of osteocalcin, the curative effect may be equivalent to the western medicine group (SMD=-0.42, 95%CI (-0.83,-0.00, P=0.05) ; Compared with traditional Chinese medicine, warm needling moxibustion or warm needling moxibustion combined therapy has statistically different efficacy in improving effective rate and pain score (RR=1.19, 95%CI (1.07, 1.33), P=0.002), (SMD=- 0.75, 95% CI (-1.09, -0.42), P0.000 1]. Conclusion Warm needle moxibustion may be an effective treatment for primary osteoporosis, but it still needs higher-quality evidence to support it.