Traditional Chinese exercises on pain and disability in middle-aged and elderly patients with lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Weiye Zhang; Gewen Wang; Rong Xie; Jiawen Zhan; Liguo Zhu; Chunyou Wan; Hualong Xie; Chuhao Cai; Yuxuan Du

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1265040

Traditional Chinese exercises on pain and disability in middle-aged and elderly patients with lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Nov 8:10:1265040. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1265040. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Weiye Zhang¹, Gewen Wang^#¹, Rong Xie^#¹, Jiawen Zhan^{1

2}, Liguo Zhu^{1

2

3}, Chunyou Wan⁴, Hualong Xie¹, Chuhao Cai¹, Yuxuan Du¹

Affiliations

¹ Third Department of Sports Medicine, Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory of Bone Setting Technology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China.
³ Second Department of Spine, Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Orthopedics, Tianjin Hospital, Tianjin, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Traditional Chinese exercises (TCEs) have played a significant role in treating various diseases. However, there is limited research assessing the efficacy of TCEs in treating Lumbar disc herniation (LDH). This study aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of four commonly used TCEs (Baduanjin, Yijinjing, Taichi, and Wuqinxi) on pain and disability in elderly patients with LDH.

Objectives: To assess the quality of relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to provide evidence support for the treatment of LDH.

Methods: RCTs were identified through eight databases. Meta-analysis and trial sequence analysis (TSA) were conducted using RevMan 5.4, Stata 17.0, and TSA 0.9.

Results: A total of 22 RCTs, involving 1931 patients, were included in the analysis. TCEs exhibited a superior effectiveness in treating LDH compared to the control group. However, the TSA analysis suggested the possibility of false positives, indicating the need for more high-quality RCT evidence. Nevertheless, TCEs showed reliable results in significantly improving the VAS score and JOA score of LDH patients.

Conclusion: Current evidence indicates that the four TCEs have advantages in treating LDH in middle-aged and elderly individuals. However, considering the limitations of this study, we need to exercise caution in drawing conclusions, and further research is required to validate these findings.

Systematic review registration: http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO, identifier [CRD42023431633].

Keywords: Baduanjin; Taichi; Wuqinxi; Yijinjing; lumbar disc herniation; traditional Chinese exercises.

Publication types

Systematic Review

Grants and funding

The author (s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the National key research and development program (No. 2021YFC1712800), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81930118, 82274557, 81904232), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central public welfare research institutes (No. ZZ13-YQ-038).