Acupuncture For Secondary Amenorrhea:A Meta-analysis

ObjectiveTo evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for secondary amenorrhea by performing Meta-analysis,and to provide objective evidence for clinical decision-making.MethodsThe first step in the process was to search both RCTs and Q-RCTs about acupuncture for secondary amenorrhea at both domestic and international databases including CNKI,CBM,VIP,WF,Cochrane Library,PubMed,and Embase.After including the qualified researches,use Jadad scale and The Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias to assess the quality of researches.Also,use the CONSORT statement to assess the quality of reporting.After assessing the quality of researches and the quality of reporting,exclude the researches that have high risk of bias.Use the software RevMan5.3 to perform Meta-analysis and subgroup analysis.Results2117 studies were identified through database searching,and 14 studies were included.1.14 studies were included for assessing the quality of researches and the quality of reporting.The quality of researches indicates that no study in this research used blinding method,and most of the studies couldn't describe how to generate the allocation sequence in detail.Also,most of the studies couldn't provide a detailed description for withdrawals and drop-outs.The majority of the studies were poorly reported.Most of the researches didn't report how sample size was determined,what method was used to generate the random allocation sequence,how the sequence was concealed,whether the study used blinding method,and whether there was a follow-up.2.13 studies with 1131 participants were included in the Metaanalysis.The result indicates that treatments which include acupuncture is more effective than those that include medicine.The subgroup analysis indicates that the combination of acupuncture and herbal medicine is more effective than herbal medicine or western medicine.The combination of acupuncture and western medicine is more effective than western medicine.The difference between acupuncture and western medicine is statistically insignificant.3.From the general conditions of the included studies,we can discover the most used acupoints and meridians for treating secondary amenorrhea.4.Every study that recorded adverse reactions showed that acupuncture was safer than medicine.To a certain degree,acupuncture is a safe treatment for secondary amenorrhea.The majority of the researches has low-quality and small sample,and it's very likely that the researches have reporting bias;also,there is heterogeneity among the researches.Therefore,the results should be taken cautiously.ConclusionThis study indicates that acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment for secondary amenorrhea.The combination of acupuncture and medicine is significantly effective.