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Current Pain and Headache Reports
Published in: Current Pain and Headache Reports 9/2023

Open Access 11-07-2023 | Acupuncture | Alternative Treatments for Pain Medicine (M Jones, Section Editor)

Acupuncture for Low Back Pain: Reevaluation of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses

Authors: Wen-xi Yan, Hui-ze Lin, Xiang Wang, Wei Zhang, Lan-ping Liu, Jin-na Yu, Tao Yang

Published in: Current Pain and Headache Reports | Issue 9/2023

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

This overview aims to reevaluate the methodological quality, report quality, and evidence quality of systematic reviews (SRs)/meta-analyses (MAs) of acupuncture for low back pain to determine whether acupuncture effectively treats low back pain (LBP).

Recent Findings

Twenty-three SRs/MAs were deemed eligible for the present overview. The AMSTAR 2 score showed that the methodological quality of one SR/MA was of medium quality, one was of low quality, and 21 were of critically low quality. Based on the results of the PRISMA evaluation, there are certain areas for improvement in the quality of reporting of SRs/MAs. There were some reporting flaws in the topic of search strategy (8/23, 34.78%), certainty assessment (4/23, 17.39%), the certainty of evidence (4/23, 17.39%), registration and protocol (3/23, 13.04%), and availability of data, code, and other material (1/23, 4.35%). Results from the GRADE evaluation indicated that 13 of 255 outcomes were rated as moderate, 88 were low, and 154 were very low.

Summary

Acupuncture effectively treated LBP in the SRs/MAs included in the reevaluation. However, the methodological, report, and evidence-based quality of the SRs/MAs on acupuncture for LBP was low. Therefore, further rigorous and comprehensive studies are warranted to improve the quality of SRs/MAs in this field.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Acupuncture for Low Back Pain: Reevaluation of Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses
Authors
Wen-xi Yan
Hui-ze Lin
Xiang Wang
Wei Zhang
Lan-ping Liu
Jin-na Yu
Tao Yang
Publication date
11-07-2023
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Current Pain and Headache Reports / Issue 9/2023
Print ISSN: 1531-3433
Electronic ISSN: 1534-3081
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-023-01139-w

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