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

Table 2

VAS scores for acupuncture treatments of frozen shoulder.

Study	Treatment group	Baseline	1 week	10 days	4 weeks	6 weeks	8 weeks	12 weeks	6 months	1 year
[27]	PT	1.8			0.4
	Acupuncture	2.3			0.7
	PT + acupuncture	2.6			0.7
[26]	Exercise + EA	6.5 ± 2.1			3.1 ± 2.2			2.4 ± 2.2	1.7 ± 2.3
	Exercise + IFE	6.5 ± 2.0			2.4 ± 1.7			2.0 ± 1.5	1.3 ± 1.4
[25]	Acupuncture	6.44 ± 0.15		3.67 ± 0.23
	EA	6.80 ± 0.13		2.52 ± 0.24
	Moxibustion	6.70 ± 0.16		2.96 ± 0.19
[23]	Exercise	3.8 ± 3.8				3.6 ± 3.8
	Exercise + steroid injection	3.7 ± 2.7				1.6 ± 2.2
	Exercise + acupuncture	3.9 ± 3.8				1.5 ± 3.3
[22]	PT + acupuncture	8 ± 1				5 ± 1		3.3 ± 1
	PT	7.9 ± 1				5.8 ± 1		4.4 ± 1
[19]	Exercise + ESWT + acupuncture	6.67 ± 1.43			3.47 ± 1.35		2.68 ± 0.81
	Exercise + ESWT	7.57 ± 1.31			5.36 ± 1.45		4.56 ± 1.35
[20]	MA-Ashi + distal points	5.65 ± 1.59			3.16 ± 1.67		2.43 ± 0.98
	MA-Ashi points	6.03 ± 0.96			4.89 ± 2.23		3.79 ± 1.45

EA: electroacupuncture; MA: manual acupuncture; PT: physical therapy; ESWT: extracorporeal shockwave therapy.