Ernst E, White A R
Department of Complementary Medicine, Postgraduate Medical School, University of Exeter, England.
Arch Intern Med. 1998 Nov 9;158(20):2235-41. doi: 10.1001/archinte.158.20.2235.
Acupuncture is commonly used to treat back pain, but there is no published meta-analysis of trials of its effectiveness for this condition.
To perform a meta-analysis of trials of acupuncture for the treatment of back pain.
A systematic literature search was conducted to retrieve all randomized controlled trials of any form of acupuncture for any type of back pain in humans. The adequacy of the acupuncture treatment was assessed by consulting 6 experienced acupuncturists. The main outcome measure for the meta-analysis was numbers of patients whose symptoms were improved at the end of treatment.
Twelve studies were included, of which 9 presented data suitable for meta-analysis. The odds ratio of improvement with acupuncture compared with control intervention was 2.30 (95% confidence interval, 1.28-4.13). For sham-controlled, evaluator-blinded studies, the odds ratio was 1.37 (95% confidence interval, 0.84-2.25).
Acupuncture was shown to be superior to various control interventions, although there is insufficient evidence to state whether it is superior to placebo.
针灸常用于治疗背痛，但尚无已发表的关于其治疗该病症有效性试验的荟萃分析。
对针灸治疗背痛的试验进行荟萃分析。
进行系统的文献检索，以获取所有关于任何形式针灸治疗人类任何类型背痛的随机对照试验。通过咨询6位经验丰富的针灸师评估针灸治疗的充分性。荟萃分析的主要结局指标是治疗结束时症状改善的患者数量。
纳入12项研究，其中9项提供了适合荟萃分析的数据。与对照干预相比，针灸改善的优势比为2.30（95%置信区间，1.28 - 4.13）。对于假针刺对照、评估者盲法的研究，优势比为1.37（95%置信区间，0.84 - 2.25）。
针灸被证明优于各种对照干预，尽管没有足够证据表明它是否优于安慰剂。
