Acupuncture treatment for urinary retention following spinal cord injury:a Meta-analysis / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is a common treatment for urinary retention after spinal cord injury. It has been widely used in the clinical treatment of urinary retention after spinal cord injury due to its small side effects and simple operation. However, there is a lack of evidence-based medicine. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness of acupuncture for urinary retention in patients with spinal cord injury by a systematic review and Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). METHODS: A computer-based online retrieval of CBM, CNKI, WanFang, Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases was performed. The keywords were "spinal cord injury, neurogenic bladder, acupuncture" in English and Chinese, respectively. RCTs concerning acupuncture or acupuncture combined with conventional therapy were identified and a Meta-analysis was conducted on RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Nine RCTs involving 632 participants were included. In terms of urodynamic changes, compared with the control group,acupuncture was more effective in improving the residual urine volume[mean difference(MD)=-144.26,95% confidence interval(CI)(-252.15,-36.37),P=0.009]and maximum cystometric capacity[MD=35.69,95%CI(3.15,68.22),P=0.03].However,there were no significant differences between two groups for average daily number of urination[MD=-1.66,95% CI(-3.40,0.07),P=0.06].Concerning total effective rate,acupuncture was more effective than control group[RR=1.24,95%CI(1.11,1.37),P<0.0001].To conclude,compared with the conventional therapy, acupuncture is more effective in improving residual urine volume, maximum cystometric capacity and total effective rate for urinary retention in patients with spinal cord injury.