Network Meta-analysis of Different Acupuncture Therapies in Treatment of Chronic Non-specific Low Back Pain
LYU Xinxia
FAN Zilin
LI Shuxuan
YANG Guang
Abstract：Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of different acupuncture therapies for chronic nonspecific low back pain using a network Meta-analysis.Methods Randomized controlled trials on acupuncture treatment for CNSLBP were retrieved from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure,WanFang Data,VIP Chinese Journal Service Platform,PubMed,Web of Science,and Cochrane Library,with the search period spanning from database inception to July 2024.Outcome measures included overall response rate and pain visual analogue scale(VAS).Two researchers independently performed literature screening,data extraction,and quality assessment using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool(version 5.1).Network Meta-analysis was conducted using Review Manager 5.4 and Stata 17.0 software:continuous variables were expressed as mean difference,and dichotomous variables as odds ratio.If node-splitting analysis indicated good consistency(P＞0.05),a consistency model was applied for data analysis,and probability ranking plots were generated for each acupuncture therapy;if inconsistency was detected(P＜0.05),an inconsistency model was used.Results A total of 19 studies involving 1728 patients were included,covering 11 acupuncture therapies(manual acupuncture,electroacupuncture,warm acupuncture,catgut embedding,floating acupuncture,bloodletting therapy,western medicine+electroacupuncture,western medicine+manual acupuncture,fire needling,bee venom acupuncture,and acupotomy).VAS score:Bloodletting therapy,fire needling,western medicine combined with manual acupuncture,western medicine combined with electroacupuncture,and manual acupuncture showed superior improvement in VAS scores compared to western medicine alone(P＜0.05).Overall response rate:Bee venom acupuncture,floating acupuncture,bloodletting therapy,western medicine combined with electroacupuncture,and western medicine combined with manual acupuncture had higher efficacy than western medicine alone(P＜0.05).Probability ranking:Bloodletting therapy had the highest probability of being the optimal treatment(P＜0.05).Conclusion Acupuncture therapies demonstrate superior overall efficacy compared to western medicine for CNSLBP,with bloodletting therapy showing the best therapeutic effect.
Keywords：chronic nonspecific low back painacupuncture therapysystematic reviewnetwork Meta-analysisevidence-based medicine
Publication Date：2026-05-20
Online Publishing Date：2026-07-17(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：9( 29-37 )