ABSTRACT
The literature was analyzed on the improvement of motor sensory function, urination and defecation in myelitis treated with acupuncture and moxibustion and focused on the characteristics of the diagnosis and treatment. The literature on acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for myelitis was collected from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP and PubMed. The analysis included the characteristics of acupoint selection, methods of acupuncture and moxibustion, time of treatment, total treatment period, efficacy, follow-up, safety, etc. Totally, 26 articles were collected. The combined therapy of acupuncture and moxibustion was predominated (12/26, 46. 15%). For the motor and sensory impairment, the acupoints were mainly selected from the four limbs, the yangming meridians of hand and foot and those adjacent to the affected spinal segments and on the governor vessel as well as Jiaji (EX-B 2) points. For urinary impairment, the acupoints were selected mainly from the lower abdominal region on the conception vessel and the lumbosacral region on the bladder meridian. For the intestinal impairment, the acupoints were from the lower limb on the stomach meridian, the lower abdominal region on the conception vessel and the back points on the bladder meridian. The intervention started commonly in the first 3 months after onset. The total treatment period was in the range from 1 to 3 months. The efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion was 69.19% to 82.56% for the improvement of motor sensory and urination, defecation function. The efficacy in follow-up was stable and the adverse reactions were not reported. It is viewed that on the basis of early diagnosis and active medication, acupuncture and moxibution achieve a certain of efficacy on the impairment of motor sensory function, urination and defecation. A clinical research is expected to further verify the efficacy.