The Effectiveness of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Frozen Shoulder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Figure 3

Forest plot of VAS score of MA at different follow-up time course. (a) 0- to 12-week follow-up. Forest plot of comparison: acupuncture (MA + PT, MA + ESWT, press tack needles) versus control (PT + ESWT, PT exercise, press tack placebo). Follow-up time: [21] immediate effect, [23] 6 weeks, [19] 8 weeks, and [22] 12 weeks. (b) 4- to 6-week follow-up. Forest plot of comparison: acupuncture (MA + PT, MA + ESWT) versus control (PT + ESWT, PT exercise). Follow-up time: [19] 4 weeks, [23] 6 weeks, and [22] 6 weeks. (c) 1.5- to 3-month follow-up. Forest plot of comparison: acupuncture (MA + PT, MA + ESWT) versus control (PT + ESWT, PT exercise). Follow-up time: same as in (b). Outcome: VAS score [1–10]. Schroder et al. 2017 CMS pain subscore 0–15 descending was converted to VAS 1–10 ascending by the following method: Sensitivity analysis of Figure 3(b) found that when excluding [19] from the analysis, heterogeneity: tau² = 0.00; chi² = 0.37, df = 1 (); I² = 0%, test for overall effect: Z = 2.59 ().

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