Clinical effectiveness and safety of acupotomy: An overview of systematic reviews

摘要

Background and Purpose: Acupotomy is a modern type of acupuncture that uses a blade-needle combined with a flat surgical scalpel at its tip. This study was conducted to summarize and critically evaluate the current evidence on acupotomy. Materials and methods: All relevant studies up to February 19, 2019, were included, through comprehensive searches in 11 electronic databases without language restrictions. Results: Eleven systematic reviews (SRs) comprising of 69 randomized controlled trials were included, and the methodological quality was medium-to-high in AMSTAR. All the included studies reviewed musculoskeletal disorders and reported a significantly higher total effective and cure rates in the acupotomy group for frozen shoulder, cervical spondylosis, third lumbar vertebrae transverse process syndrome, trigger finger, knee os-teoarthritis, and lumbar spinal stenosis, compared to the other active control groups. Conclusion: Acupotomy showed promising results for some musculoskeletal disorders; however, additional high-quality evidence is required to make clinical recommendations regarding this procedure.