Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Review Article

Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Treatment of Postoperative Ileus in Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 5

Acupuncture therapy versus postoperative care for time to first defecation.


Treatment type, cancer, participants (number)	Acupuncture therapy	Effect Size MD [95 CI] I²	Study ID No.†

Open surgery, FTP, rectal cancer (84)	Manual acup.	-22.56 [-24.36, -20.76]	11

Open surgery, FTP¹, CRC (30)	Manual acup.	-28.80 [-62.11, 4.51]	13

Open radical surgery², CRC (60)	Manual acup.	-5.71 [-10.25, -1.17]	14.1 (T1)

Pooled result (174) 3 RCTs	Manual acup.	-16.30 [-31.35, -1.25] 95.7%	11, 13, 14

Radical surgery, CRC (60)	Electro-acup.	-5.16 [-7.98, -2.34]	17

Open radical surgery², CRC (60)	Electro-acup.	-12.96 [-16.67, -9.25]	14.2 (T2)

Intraperitoneal surgery, colon cancer (76)	Electro-acup.	-0.34 [-24.71, 24.03]	6

Laparoscopic surgery, CRC (110)	Electro-acup.	-36.20 [-53.26, -19.14]	7

Pooled result (306) 4 RCTs	Electro-acup.	-12.39 [-20.97, -3.81] 86%	6, 7, 14, 17

Radical surgery, colon cancer, elderly patients (60)	Manual plus electro-acup.	-3.00 [-13.32, 7.32]	15

Radical surgery², CRC (80)	Acupressure	-9.65 [-11.23, -8.07]	20

Radical surgery, CRC (70)	Warm needling	-16.30 [-23.13, -9.47]	19

Pooled result (660) 9 RCTs	Manual, electro-, acupressure, warm needling	-12.68 [-18.60, -6.77] 94.8%	6, 7, 11, 13-15, 17, 19, 20

Usual surgery, CRC (80)	Acupressure plus ear acupressure	-11.16 [-13.66, -8.66]	22

Dixon surgery, rectal cancer (80)	Moxa plus ear acupressure	-25.47 [-33.91, -17.03]	3

Pooled result (160) 2 RCTs	Manual acup./ moxa plus ear acupressure	-17.72 [-31.70, -3.75] 90.2%	3, 22

Pooled result (820) 11 RCTs	All acup., acupressure, moxa on trad. points	-13.53 [-18.38, -8.67] 94.1%	3, 6, 7, 11, 13-15, 17, 19, 20, 22

Usual surgery, colon cancer (60)	Ear acupressure	-9.28 [-16.73, -1.83]	12

Open radical surgery, rectal cancer (160)	Ear acupressure	-4.08 [-6.02, -2.14]	4

Pooled result (220) 2 RCTs	Ear acupressure	-5.38 [-9.80, -0.97] 42.9%	4, 12

Total pool (1040) 13 RCTs	All acupuncture therapies	-12.34 [-16.84, -7.84] 94.9%	All above

means statistically significant; † see Table 1; 1: acup. began 24 hours after surgery; 2: excluding Miles surgery.
CI, Confidence Interval; MD, mean difference; moxa, moxibustion; trad., traditional.