Therapeutic Efficacy of Acupuncture at Baihui (GV 20) and Shenting (GV 24) for Post-stroke Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review / 上海针灸杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture at Baihui (GV 20) and Shenting (GV 24) in treating post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) by using the systematic review method.Method Via computer, Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CJFD), Wanfang, China Biology Medicine disc (CBMdisc), Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, PubMed, Foreign Evidence-Based Medicine (FEMB), the Cochrane Library were retrieved.Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion andShanghai Journal of Acupuncture-moxibustion were manually retrieved. Randomized controlled trials published before Jan 31st of 2013 on acupuncture at Baihui (GV 20) and Shenting (GV 24) in treating PSCI, both in Chinese and English, were collected. The required data were extracted, then were evaluated according to the criteria of Cochrane systematic review and underwent meta-analysis by using RevMan 5.0.Result Twenty-two clinical trials were finally recruited, including 1637 subjects. The meta-analysis showed that acupuncture at acupoints including Baihui (GV 20) and Shenting (GV 24) produced a more significant rehabilitation result compared to single rehabilitation training or medication. The comparison of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score showed [WMD=3.37, 95％CI (1.70, 5.05),P<0.00001]; the comparison of P300 latency [WMD=1.22, 95％CI (0.84, 1.59),P<0.00001]. Severe adverse reactions were not discovered. Conclusion Acupuncture at Baihui (GV 20) and Shenting (GV 24) can effectively improve the cognitive function of PSCI patients. However, the diagnostic criteria and evaluation indexes are expected to be unified and standardized, and the clinical trials on acupuncture intervening PSCI are required to be further improved methodologically.