Acupuncture for postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction in cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Dezhi Lin; Yangxu Ou; Longlong Li; Kexin Wu; Qiang Zhang; Jiayin Yan; Kunlin Kuang; Dezhong Peng

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.1184228

Acupuncture for postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction in cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Front Oncol. 2023 Jun 9:13:1184228. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1184228. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Dezhi Lin¹, Yangxu Ou¹, Longlong Li¹, Kexin Wu¹, Qiang Zhang¹, Jiayin Yan¹, Kunlin Kuang¹, Dezhong Peng¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Acupuncture and Tuina, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Background: Postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction (PGD) in cancer is the commonest and most severe postoperative complication in patients with cancer. Acupuncture has been widely used for PGD in cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for PGD in cancer.

Methods: We comprehensively searched eight randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for PGD in cancer published until November 2022. Time to first flatus (TFF) and time to first defecation (TFD) were the primary outcomes, and time to bowel sound recovery (TBSR) and the length of hospital stay (LOS) were the secondary outcomes. The Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool was used to assess the quality of the RCTs, and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) system was used to evaluate the certainty of the evidence. The meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4, and a publication bias test was performed using Stata 15.1.

Results: Sixteen RCTs involving 877 participants were included in this study. The meta-analysis indicated that acupuncture could effectively reduce the TFF, TFD, and TBSR compared with routine treatment (RT), sham acupuncture, and enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS). However, acupuncture did not shorten the LOS compared with RT and ERAS. The subgroup analysis revealed that acupuncture could significantly reduce the TFF and TFD. Acupuncture effectively reduced the TFF and TFD in all cancer types included in this review. Besides, local acupoints in combination with distal acupoints could reduce the TFF and TFD, and distal-proximal acupoints could significantly reduce the TFD. No trial reported adverse events of acupuncture.

Conclusions: Acupuncture is an effective and relatively safe modality for treating PGD in cancer. We anticipate that there will be more high-quality RCTs involving more acupuncture techniques and cancer types, focusing on combining acupoints for PGD in cancer, further determining the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for PGD in patients with cancer outside China.

Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero, identifier CRD42022371219.

Keywords: acupuncture; cancer; meta-analysis; postoperative gastrointestinal dysfunction; systematic review.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Project of the Sichuan Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine(Grant numbers 2021MS090).