ABSTRACT
Objective To systematically evaluate the influence of acupuncture-moxibustion on the peroneal nerve conduction velocity in type 2 diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), and to provide clinical references for acupuncture-moxibustion treatment for DPN.Method By searching the CBM, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, Pubmed, Springer and Medline databases, randomized controlled trials (RCT) of acupuncture-moxibustion for the type 2 DPN published from January 2000 to January 2014 were retrieved and the relevant data of the peroneal nerve conduction velocity were collected for methodological evaluation. RevMan 5.1 software was adopted to conduct the meta-analysis.Result Totally 10 RCTs were recruited with 685 cases involved, including 355 cases in the treatment group and 330 cases in the control group. The meta-analysis results indicated that acupuncture-moxibustion can produce a better effect in improving the motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) and sensory nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) of peroneal nerve in type 2 DPN than the treatments used in the control group, and the differences were statistically significant between the two groups [MD=3.55, 95%CI (0.79, 6.31); MD=4.10, 95%CI (0.22, 7.99)].Conclusion Acupuncture-moxibustion can improve the peroneal nerve conduction velocity in type 2 DPN, and thus is worth application in clinic. Due to the limitation of the included studies, such as small sample size and low quality of the articles and high probability of bias, RCTs of large sample size and high quality are required to confirm the above conclusions.