College of Korean Medicine, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Korea.
Clinical Medicine Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon 34054, Korea.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Nov 6;17(21):8226. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17218226.
Acupuncture is one of the representative complementary and alternative medicine treatments used for various types of pain. This systematic review summarized and analyzed clinical case reports/series utilizing acupuncture for treating sports injuries in athletes, thereby providing the basis for further research to establish clinical evidence on acupuncture treatment in sports medicine. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in Embase including MEDLINE up to 21 August 2019 without language and publication date restrictions. Due to the heterogeneity of each study, explanatory and descriptive analyses were performed. As a result, in each case report/series, it was confirmed that acupuncture was applied for treating various types of sports injuries experienced by athletes. Acupuncture can help relieve short-term pain and recover from dysfunction and has been used as a useful, noninvasive, and conservative modality for managing sports injuries such as lateral meniscus rupture, femoral acetabular impingement, ganglion cysts, and sports hernia. In addition, acupuncture has been suggested as a treatment worth trying for diseases such as yips and delayed onset muscle soreness. The included cases showed some potential of acupuncture in the treatment of various types of sports injuries, beyond pain control in musculoskeletal disorders. However, considering that this review was based on case reports/series, a limited understanding of the clinical value of acupuncture in athletes is required. In the future, more specific research questions and hypotheses should be addressed to generate evidence based on experimental research.
针灸是一种用于治疗各种类型疼痛的代表性补充和替代医学疗法。本系统综述总结和分析了利用针灸治疗运动员运动损伤的临床病例报告/系列，为进一步研究提供了基础，以在运动医学中建立针灸治疗的临床证据。对 Embase 中的文献进行了全面检索，包括 MEDLINE 直至 2019 年 8 月 21 日，没有语言和出版日期的限制。由于每项研究的异质性，进行了说明性和描述性分析。结果，在每个病例报告/系列中，都证实针灸被用于治疗运动员所经历的各种类型的运动损伤。针灸可以帮助缓解短期疼痛和恢复功能障碍，并且已被用作治疗半月板外侧撕裂、股骨髋臼撞击症、腱鞘囊肿和运动疝等运动损伤的有用、非侵入性和保守方法。此外，针灸被认为是治疗弹响指和延迟性肌肉酸痛等疾病的一种值得尝试的治疗方法。纳入的病例表明，针灸在治疗各种类型的运动损伤方面具有一定的潜力，不仅仅是控制肌肉骨骼疾病的疼痛。然而，由于本综述基于病例报告/系列，因此需要对针灸在运动员中的临床价值有一定的了解。未来，应提出更具体的研究问题和假设，以基于实验研究产生证据。
