The Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Sciatica: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Data summary and characteristics of the 12 studies included in meta-analysis.

Study ID	Group	Age (year)	Duration (month)	Sample size; (M/F)	Outcome	Type of sciatica	Diagnostic criteria	Withdrawal/adverse effects
Zhan and Liang, 1993 [10]	Acupuncture; CWM	NA; NA	NA; NA	420; 420	Effectiveness	NA	NA	NA/NA
Chen et al., 2007 [12]	Acupuncture; CWM1; CWM2	34.24 ± 5.78; 33.36 ± 7.58; 35.78 ± 9.65	63 ± 43.08; 69.36 ± 58.44; 56.52 ± 47.52	30 (22/8); 30 (21/9); 30 (20/10)	Effectiveness pain threshold	NA	The clinical diagnostic and curative criteria of diseases (2nd) (1999)	NA/NA
Dong et al., 2008 [15]	Acupuncture; CWM	25–64; 22–65	0.57–252; 0.3–216	60 (32/28); 60 (34/26)	Pain intensity	Primary sciatica	3200 standard diagnoses of diseases in internal medicine	NA/NA
Chen, 2010 [16]	Electroacupuncture; CWM	41.72 ± 10.01; 42.10 ± 9.87	25.29 ± 8.12; 24.21 ± 7.98	30 (12/18); 30 (11/19)	Effectiveness pain intensity	NA	Criteria of diagnosis of diseases and syndromes in traditional Chinese medicine (1994); Practical diagnostics and therapeutics of integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine (1995)	A/A
Zhu et al., 2011 [11]	Electroacupuncture; CWM	18–75; 19–76	1–60; 1.5–66	40 (22/18); 40 (21/19)	Effectiveness	Trunk-sciatica	Physical examination, physical test (straight-leg-raising test), and; diagnostic imaging	NA/NA
Zhang, 2012 [17]	Acupuncture; CWM	35 ± 4.5	0.3–48	145 (89/56)	Effectiveness	Secondary sciatica	Physical examination, physical test (the sciatic nerve traction syndrome), and; diagnostic imaging	NA/A
Zhai, 2012 [18]	Acupuncture; CWM	22–71; 22–70	0.33–12; 0.1–12	28 (17/11); 28 (16/12)	Effectiveness	NA	Physical examination, physical test (straight-leg-raising test), and; diagnostic imaging	NA/NA
Liu, 2012 [19]	Acupuncture; CWM1; CWM2	29–35	60–108	80 (43/37)	Pain threshold	NA	The clinical diagnostic and curative criteria of diseases	NA/A
Qiu, 2013 [5]	Acupuncture; CWM	24–68; 25–69.5	0.4–60; 0.5–72	87 (52/35); 87 (54/33)	Effectiveness	NA	Physical examination, physical test (the sciatic nerve traction syndrome), and; diagnostic imaging	NA/NA
Huang, 2014 [20]	Acupuncture; CWM	36 ± 4.6	10–48	76 (50/26)	Effectiveness	Secondary sciatica	Physical examination, physical test (the sciatic nerve traction syndrome), and; diagnostic imaging	NA/NA
Wang, 2014 [21]	Electroacupuncture; CWM	53.29 ± 3.17	63.84 ± 18.84	80 (43/37)	Effectiveness pain threshold	NA	The clinical diagnostic and curative criteria of diseases	NA/NA
Ye et al., 2015 [22]	Electroacupuncture; CWM	58.2 ± 9.1; 55.5 ± 7.1	NA; NA	31 (12/19); 30 (11/19)	Pain intensity	Root sciatica	Criteria of diagnosis and therapeutic effect of diseases and syndromes in traditional Chinese medicine (1994); Guiding principle of clinical research on new drugs of traditional Chinese medicine (trial) (2002)	NA/NA

A: available; M: male; F: female; NA: not available; CWM: conventional Western medicine; RCT: randomized controlled trial.
Age and duration were shown in mean ± standard deviation or minimum–maximum.