Objective
To assess the effectiveness of acupunctures in treatment of primary dysmenorrhea by using network meta-analysis.
Methods
Databases including the PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 6, 2016), CBM, CNKI and WanFang Data were searched for relevant clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing acupunctures with ibuprofen or other kinds of acupuncture from inception to July 6th 2016. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Then meta-analysis was performed by using Stata 13.0 and WinBugs 1.43 software.
Results
A total of 56 RCTs involving 4 600 PD patients were included. The results of network meta-analysis showed that: for the clinical effects: simple acupuncture, acupuncture plus moxa-moxibustion, acupuncture plus indirect-moxibustion, electroacupuncture, warm-acupuncture and electroacupuncture plus warm-acupuncture were superior to ibuprofen, acupuncture plus moxa-moxibustion, acupuncture plus indirect-moxibustion and warm-acupuncture were superior to simple acupuncture. For VAS score, there was no significant difference among all treatments. Simple acupuncture and ibuprofen were superior to acupuncture plus indirect-moxibustion in dysmenorrhea symptom scores.
Conclusion
The included 6 kinds of acupunctures are superior to ibuprofen and different acupunctures have different advantages in the treatment of PD. When selecting treatment regimen, it is better to consider the clinical situation and TCM syndrome differentiation.
