With the purpose of providing more references of acupuncture for chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG), the research achievements and action mechanism of acupuncture for CAG during past 20 years are summarized and analyzed. It is found that acupuncture could improve immune function, adjust central neural pathways, regulate gastroi-ntestinal hormone, increase stomach blood flow, regulate cytokines, increase gastric dynamics, control the gastric acid secretion, improve inflammatory response and regulate cell proliferation and apoptosis, which could strengthen gastric mucosa barrier. In addition, several problems and defects of related studies were pointed out, and reference and suggestion are provided for further clinical researches.
Keywords: acupuncture; chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG); mechanism; review.