Acupuncture Therapy Is More Effective Than Artificial Tears for Dry Eye Syndrome: Evidence Based on a Meta-Analysis

Yang, L.

Yang, Z.

Yu, H.

Song, H.

Evidence-based Complementary & Alternative Medicine (eCAM)

2015

2015

Systematic Review

DRY eye syndromes -- Treatment

Acupuncture

COMPARATIVE studies

INFORMATION storage & retrieval systems -- Medical care

Medline

META-analysis

ONLINE information services

SAMPLING (Statistics)

SYSTEMATIC reviews (Medical research)

DESCRIPTIVE statistics

Background. The efficacy of acupuncture in dry eye syndrome patients remains controversial. Methods. Pubmed, Ovid, Cochrane libraries, CNKI, Wanfang, and CQVIP databases were electronically searched until October 1, 2014. Outcomes including tear break-up time (BUT), Schirmer I test (SIT), and cornea fluorescein staining (CFS) were analyzed. A meta-analysis was performed using both fixed- and random-effects models based on heterogeneity across studies. Results. Seven studies were included in this study; 198 and 185 patients were randomly treated with acupuncture and artificial tears, respectively. The overall BUT of patients in acupuncture group was significantly longer than that of the artificial tears group after treatment (P<0.00001). The SIT was significantly higher in the acupuncture group than that in the artificial tears group after treatment (P=0.001). The CFS of patients in acupuncture group was significantly improved compared to that in artificial group (P<0.0001). Conclusions. Acupuncture therapy is effective for the dry eye patients, partly better than artificial tear treatment.

Accession Number: 109051051; Source Information: 4/7/2015, Vol. 2015, p1; Subject Term: DRY eye syndromes -- Treatment; Subject Term: ACUPUNCTURE; Subject Term: COMPARATIVE studies; Subject Term: INFORMATION storage & retrieval systems -- Medical care; Subject Term: MEDLINE; Subject Term: META-analysis; Subject Term: ONLINE information services; Subject Term: SAMPLING (Statistics); Subject Term: SYSTEMATIC reviews (Medical research); Subject Term: DESCRIPTIVE statistics; Subject Term: ; Number of Pages: 11p; ; Illustrations: 1 Color Photograph, 1 Diagram, 4 Charts; ; Document Type: Article;

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