ABSTRACT
Objective To assess the quality of literature on randomized or semirandomized clinical controlled trials of fire needling treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.Method Acomputer search assisted by a manual search was conducted of CBM (1979—2015), CNKI (1979—2015), VIP (1989—2015),Wanfang digital periodical group(1998—2015), PubMed (1966—2015), EMbase (1980—2015) and Cochrane Library (Issue4, 2015).Randomizedor semir and omized clinical controlled trials were included.Two reviewers extracted data independently and checked them each other.The methodological quality of research design, diagnostic and inclusion/exclusion criteria, intervening measures for fire needling/control group,efficacy evaluation criteriaand observation time points, and adverse reaction reporting were assessed according toCochrane Reviewers' Handbook 4.2.8.Ameta-analysis was made of homogeneity studies.The GRADE approach ratedsystem outcomes.ResultA total of sevenr and omized controlled trialswere included.Four included studies made a comparison between fire needling andmedication (analgesic+ antirheumatic) groups andthere was no statistically significant difference in the efficacy rate [RR=1.22, 95%CI(0.97, 1.52)].GRADE ratingwas very low.Internationally accepted diagnostic criteria and general evaluation methodswere still not used universally.Conclusion The current clinical reports show that fire needling treatment has some effect on rheumatoid arthritis, but it still needs related evidence support.