Electrical acupoint stimulation for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) is the most common adverse effect of chemotherapy and affects the continuation of chemotherapy in cancer patients. Electrical acupoint stimulation (EAS), which includes electroacupuncture and transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TES), has been used to treat CINV. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy of EAS in the treatment of CINV.

METHODS

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of EAS for CINV retrieved form five key databases. Two researchers independently performed article screening, data extraction and data integration. The Cochrane Collaboration's tool for assessing risk of bias was used to assesse the methodological quality according to Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. RevMan 5.4 was used to perform analyses.

RESULTS

10 RCTs with a total of 950 participants were included. The results showed that there was no significant difference between EAS compared to sham EAS in terms of increasing the rate of complete control of CINV and decreasing the overall incidence of CINV [RR = 1.26, 95 % CI (0.96, 1.66),  = 0.95; RR = 1.16, 95 % CI (0.97, 1.40), p = 0.71]. In terms of CINV severity, EAS reduced the occurrence of moderate-to-severe CINV [RR = 0.60, 95 % CI (0.38, 0.94),  = 0.03; RR = 0.50, 95 % CI (0.33, 0.76),  = 0.001].

CONCLUSION

EAS could improve moderate-to-severe CINV. However, EAS did not show a significant difference in reducing overall incidence and improving complete control rates compared with sham EAS. Due to limitations in the quality of the included articles, the available studies are insufficient to have sufficient evidence to confirm the efficacy of EAS for CINV. Validation with rigorously designed, large-sample, high-quality clinical trial studies may also be needed.