Warming Acupuncture in the Treatment of Cervical Spondylotic Radiculopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background: Warming acupuncture (WA) is widely used in the management of Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR)in China and obtains desirable efficacy. Therefore, the aim of this study is to systematically assess the efficacy and safety whether using WA alone or combined with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy for the treatment of CSR. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Sinomed, the Cochrane Library, CNKI, VIP and Wangfang databases were searched from their inception through 30 September 2020. All the retrieved records were screened or excluded based on the criteria that were pre-established, and the results that meet the criteria were assessed by the Cochrane risk of bias tool and Meta-analysis was conducted by using RevMan5.3 software. Results: Fourteen RCTs (1021patients) were included in the meta-analysis. The effective rate of WA alone or combination with TCM therapy was analyzed in comparison with the treatment of regular therapy. The results indicated that compared with regular therapy, WA alone or in combination with TCM therapy increased clinical effective rate (Odds ratio (OR)=4.43,95%CI 2.85 to 6.90, P<0.01). Additionally decreased VAS score (mean difference (MD)=-1.21,95%CI -1.68 to -0.73, P<0.01), PPI (MD=-1.34, 95% CI -2.08 to -0.61) and PRI (MD=-0.55,95% CI -0.72 to -0.37, P<0.001). However, adverse events of WA were not specially reported in all studies. Conclusions: WA as the main treatment for CSR can improve the clinical effective rate and reduce the level of VAS score, PPI and PRI. Further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of WA for CSR treatment, rigorously and unambiguously.