RESUMO
Objective To systematically assess the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment for vertigo with excess syndrome. Methods Chinese and English literature about acupuncture treatment of vertigo with excess syndrome published in recent years was comprehensively searched. The quality of the retrieved literature meeting the inclusion criteria of randomized controlled trial was assessed and its data was collected. A Meta analysis of the included studies was carried out.Results Finally, 10 articles with randomized controlled trials containing a total of 688 patients were included in the analysis. The included literature was assessed at lower quality using Cochrane evaluation member manual 5.1. A Meta analysis showed that the efficacy rate of acupuncture treatment for vertigo with excess syndrome was higher than that of Western drugs alone [M-H OR 4.84, 95%CI (2.39, 9.81),P<0.0001]. Combined acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine was superior to Chinese herbal medicine alone [M-H OR 3.82, 95%CI (2.06, 7.10),P<0.0001]. Vertigo symptom and function scoring showed day 3 of treatment [MD 4.66, 95%CI (2.97, 6.35)], day 7 of treatment [MD 0.95, 95%CI (0.03, 1.86)] and day 14 of treatment [MD 0.89, 95%CI (0.71, 2.49)]. There were statistically significant differences in the vertigo symptom and function scores between the two groups of patients at day 3 and 7 of treatment. There were no statistically significant differences in the scores between the two groups of patients at day 14 of treatment. Conclusions Acupuncture or combined acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are effective and highly safe in treating vertigo with excess syndrome, but high-quality, multi-center and large-sample RCT studies still need to be conducted for validation and support.