Effects and safety of acupuncture for DFUs: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To systematically evaluate the effect and safety of acupuncture for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs). Methods: Six databases, including Pubmed, Web of Science, EMbase, the Cochrane Library, the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), were electronic searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Retrieval periods from each database were stopped until 30 October, 2014. Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool was used to assess the methodological quality of included studies. Results: A total of 8 trials involving 481 participants met the inclusion criteria. The results of meta and descriptive analysis suggested that acupuncture effectively improved total effective rate of DFUs, shortened ulcer healing time , and improved the blood flow volume, but acupuncture did not ameliorate vessel diameter and peak velocity. No serious adverse events were identified in acupuncture group. Conclusions: Acupuncture is more effective in shortening overall treatment time. Acupuncture has advantages over the control group in curative effect.