Cupping for Treating Pain: A Systematic Review

Table 2

Summary of treatment points, their rationales and adverse events.

First author (year) (ref.)	Conditions	Cupping point	Rationales	Adverse effects
Huang (2006) [7]	Cancer pain	Liver cancer: ST36, SP6 or LR14, BL18 Lung cancer: BL13, CV17 or BL15 Large intestine cancer: CV8, BL25 or ST36 Bone Metastases: BL23, ST36, SP6 or Asihyeol (unfixed point) Gastric cancer: CV8, BL21, and so forth.	TCM theory	n.r.
Hong (2006) [8]	Low back pain	Bladder Meridian (BL12–BL27)	TCM theory	n.r.(−)
Zhang (1997) [9]	Acute trigeminal neuralgia	GV14, BL13 (bilateral)	Experience of veteran TCM doctors	n.r.
Farhadi (2008) [10]	Low back pain	Day 0: Between the two scapulas, opposite to T1–T3 Scapular spine Day 3: The sacrum area, between the lumbar vertebrae and the coccyx bone Day 6: The calf area, in the middle surface of gastrocnemius muscle	Traditional Iranian medicine	Vaso-vagal shock (n = 3)
Ludtke (2006) [11]	Brachialgia paraesthetica nocturna	The skin at the shoulder triangle (over the Musculus trapezius)	Empirical data	None
Michalsen (2007) [12]^a	Brachialgia paraesthetica nocturna (neurologically confirmed carpel tunnel syndrome)	The skin at the shoulder triangle (over the Musculus trapezius)	Empirical data	n.r.
Xu (2004) [13]	Herpes zoster	Lesion (the surface of vesicle or erythema and painful place)	TCM theory	n.r.

TCM: Traditional Chinese medicine, n.r.: not reported.
^aThe authors were contacted and details were based on information from them.