Introduction Postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) is a severe complication of herpes zoster (HZ), representing an important burden of disease in the elderly. Electroacupuncture (EA) has become growingly appreciated as a therapy of PHN with the situation that effectiveness of conventional therapy of PHN is less than ideal. Owing to its low price, no side effects, high safety and high patients acceptance, EA has been used in treating PHN more frequently. Therefore, the randomized controlled trial which is to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of EA in patients with PHN and whether EA could be an alternative therapy of medication is needed. Patients and Methods A total of 88 patients with PHN will be recruited from 2 hospitals and randomized assigned to EA group or Medication group in a 1:1 ratio, utilizing a central randomization system. The trial will involve a 4-week treatment period, and a 4-week follow-up period. All variables will be evaluated at week 0 (baseline), week 2 (treatment), week 4 (treatment), week 8 (follow-up) and week 16 (follow-up). Primary outcomes will be pain intensity. Secondary outcomes will contain quality of life, mood state and sleep quality. All adverse effects will be assessed during the trial. Conclusion This study will provide significant evidence that whether EA therapy is effective and safe for patients with PHN and whether EA could be an alternative therapy of medication. Ethics and Dissemination Ethics approval has been obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Hangzhou Third People’s Hospital (No. 2021KAO43). Informed consent will be signed before enrolment. Results of this trial will be presented to international journals for publication and be reported in relevant international conferences. Trial Registration Number This protocol has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial registry with the identification code ChiCTR2100054592.

Background Accumulate evidence indicated that moxibustion has a positive effect on pain treatment. However, the bibliometric analysis of moxibustion on pain remains uncertain. Herein, this study aimed to explore the current hotspots and the research trends over the past decade to bring a great panorama in this field. Methods Publications were retrieved from the database Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) related to moxibustion therapy for pain treatment from January 1, 2012, to December 31, 2021. CiteSpace and Excel were applied to analyze the volume of publications, journals, cited journals, dual-map analysis, countries, institutes, authors, references, and keywords with citation bursts. Results A total of 360 publications were retrieved from 2012 to 2021. The annual number of publications increased steadily with some fluctuations over the past 10 years. “The Evid Based Complement Alternat Med” and “the Gut” were the top-cited journals in frequency and centrality. China and Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine were the most prolific country and institutions, respectively. Among authors, Huangan Wu was the most active author with the highest cited frequency. Jun Xiong, Fanrong Liang and Guixing Xu held the articles with higher centrality. In the ranking of frequency and centrality in cited references, the top one was the article published by Shamseer L and Deng HY, respectively. “Acupuncture” was the keyword with the highest frequency. Pain disease (including rheumatoid arthritis, knee osteoarthritis, herpes zoster), research method (including randomized controlled trial), and risk (including quality of life, economic burden, physical and psychological problems) were the hotspots and frontier trends in this field. Conclusion This bibliometric study reveals the current status and research trend in the treatment of pain with moxibustion. The formulation with bibliometric analysis further elicits hot spots and frontier issues in this field.