Department of Clinical Korean Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea.
Department of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation, Kyung Hee University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2023 Jun 16;102(24):e34039. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000034039.
Cupping therapy is a common practice in Korean medicine. Despite developments in this clinical and research area, the current knowledge is insufficient to identify the effects of cupping therapy on obesity. We aimed to assess the effects and safety of cupping therapy on obesity by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of cupping therapy.
A systematic search of databases was conducted, including MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Citation Information by the National Institute of Informatics, KoreaMed, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, and ScienceON, for full-text randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published through January 14, 2023, with no language restrictions. The experimental groups received cupping therapy combined with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and conventional therapy. The control groups received no treatment, conventional therapy, or TCM treatments alone. The experimental and control groups were compared in terms of body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI), hip circumference (HC), waist circumference (WC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), and body fat percentage (BFP). We evaluated the risk of bias using the 7 domains stipulated by the Cochrane Collaboration Group and performed a meta-analysis using Cochrane Collaboration software (Review Manager Software Version 5.3).
A total of 21 RCTs were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. The analysis revealed improvements in BW (P < .001), BMI (P < .001), HC (P = .03), and WC (P < .001). However, there were no clinically significant changes in WHR (P = .65) or BFP (P = .90), both of which had very low certainty of evidence. No adverse events were reported.
Overall, our results show that cupping therapy can be used to treat obesity in terms of BW, BMI, HC, and WC and is a safe intervention for the treatment of obesity. However, the conclusions of this review should be interpreted with caution in clinical practice because of the uncertain quality of the included studies.
拔罐疗法是韩国医学中的一种常见疗法。尽管该临床和研究领域取得了发展，但目前的知识还不足以确定拔罐疗法对肥胖的影响。我们旨在通过系统评价和荟萃分析拔罐疗法的效果来评估拔罐疗法对肥胖的影响和安全性。
对 MEDLINE/PubMed、EMBASE、Cochrane 中央对照试验注册库、中国国家知识基础设施、国立情报学研究所引文信息、韩国医学文献数据库、东方医学高级检索综合系统和 ScienceON 等数据库进行了系统检索，检索时间截至 2023 年 1 月 14 日，检索了所有语言的全文随机对照试验（RCT）。实验组接受拔罐疗法联合中药（TCM）和常规疗法，对照组不接受治疗、常规疗法或 TCM 单独治疗。实验组和对照组在体重（BW）、体重指数（BMI）、臀围（HC）、腰围（WC）、腰臀比（WHR）和体脂百分比（BFP）方面进行比较。我们使用 Cochrane 协作组规定的 7 个领域评估偏倚风险，并使用 Cochrane 协作软件（Review Manager Software Version 5.3）进行荟萃分析。
本系统评价和荟萃分析共纳入 21 项 RCT。分析显示 BW（P <.001）、BMI（P <.001）、HC（P =.03）和 WC（P <.001）均有改善。然而，WHR（P =.65）和 BFP（P =.90）没有临床意义的变化，这两个指标的证据确定性都非常低。未报告不良事件。
总体而言，我们的结果表明，拔罐疗法在 BW、BMI、HC 和 WC 方面可用于治疗肥胖，并且是治疗肥胖的一种安全干预措施。然而，由于纳入研究的质量不确定，在临床实践中应谨慎解释本综述的结论。
