OBJECTIVE

To systematically review the effectiveness and safety of heat-sensitive moxibustion (HSM) therapy in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

METHODS

Papers of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) concerning the effectiveness and safety of HSM therapy for LDH published in both Chinese and English before November 17, 2015 were collected from PubMed, EMBase, Cochrane library, CNKI, CBM, WanFang Data and VIP databases according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and by using key words of "thermal moxibustion" "heat-sensitive acupoint" "lumbar intervertebral disc herniation (LIDH)" "lumbar disc herniation (LDH)" and "lumbago backache", followed by screening, data extracting and methodological quality assessing. Then, the Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software.

RESULTS

Twenty RCTs were included eventually, containing a total of 1 861 cases treated by HSM therapy in the treatment of LDH patients. The Meta-analysis shows that the effectiveness and safety of HSM therapy for LDH are superior to those of other therapies, which is drawn from total effective rate of treatment group[RR=1.13, 95%CI(1.09,1.18), <0.001], M-JOA score[MD=-3.17, 95%CI(-3.88, -2.47), <0.001], M-JOA score difference of various subgroups:daily life ability effect difference[MD=1.04, 95%CI(0.44, 1.64), <0.001], subjective effect symptoms difference[MD=0.58, 95%CI (0.23, 0.92),=0.001], objective effect symptoms difference[MD=1.12, 95%CI(0.58, 1.65),<0.001], VAS score[MD=-1.17,95%CI(-1.78, -0.57), <0.001], the recurrence rate[RR=0.54, 95%CI(0.37, 0.80), =0.002], and no adverse reactions mentioned in the reported results. The sensitivity analysis showed a greater homogeneity in literature and the results were stable, but funnel plot analysis showed a publication bias.

CONCLUSIONS

The HSM therapy is effective and safe in the treatment of LDH patients.