Department of Acupuncture, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
Biomed Res Int. 2019 Jan 13;2019:7491281. doi: 10.1155/2019/7491281. eCollection 2019.
Acupuncture has been found to be effective for treating chronic constipation.
The objective of this exploratory study was to evaluate the efficacy of electroacupuncture (EA) in the subgroup of women with chronic severe functional constipation.
This is a subgroup analysis of the multicenter, randomized, sham-acupuncture (SA) controlled trial. The efficacy of 822 (76%) female patients of the 1075 randomized patients with chronic severe functional constipation was evaluated. Patients were randomly assigned to receive 28 sessions of EA or SA over 8 weeks with 12 weeks' follow-up. This study focused on sustained complete spontaneous bowel movements (CSBMs) responders over the 8-week treatment.
The primary outcome which was percentage of the sustained CSBMs responders for the subset of women with severe constipation was significantly higher in the EA group (24.3%) than in the SA group (8.1%) with difference of 13.1% (95%CI, 6.5% to 19.7%; P<0.001). As for the secondary outcomes, responders for ≥9 of 12 weeks of follow-up were higher in the EA group than in the SA group. Additionally, EA had significantly better improvement in mean weekly CSBMs, mean weekly spontaneous bowel movements (SBMs), and mean score changes of stool consistency and straining as well as quality of life of patients. The incidence of adverse events (AEs) related to acupuncture was rare and no statistical significance was found between two groups.
EA improved the spontaneity and the completeness of the bowel movement of women with severe functional constipation during 8-week treatment and the effect sustained for 12 weeks after stopping treatment.
针刺已被证明对治疗慢性便秘有效。
本探索性研究的目的是评估电针对慢性严重功能性便秘女性亚组的疗效。
这是一项多中心、随机、假针刺（SA）对照试验的亚组分析。对 1075 例慢性严重功能性便秘随机患者中 76%的 822 例女性患者的疗效进行了评估。患者被随机分配接受 28 次 EA 或 SA 治疗，共 8 周，随访 12 周。本研究主要关注 8 周治疗期间持续完全自发性排便（CSBMs）应答者。
主要结局即严重便秘女性亚组持续 CSBMs 应答者的百分比，EA 组（24.3%）显著高于 SA 组（8.1%），差异为 13.1%（95%CI，6.5%至 19.7%；P<0.001）。对于次要结局，在 EA 组中，12 周随访中应答者≥9 的比例高于 SA 组。此外，EA 组患者每周 CSBM 次数、每周自发性排便次数（SBMs）、粪便稠度和排便费力评分以及生活质量的改善均明显优于 SA 组。与针刺相关的不良事件（AE）发生率较低，两组之间无统计学意义。
EA 改善了严重功能性便秘女性在 8 周治疗期间的自发性和排便完全性，并且在停止治疗后 12 周内仍有效果。
