Electroacupuncture for the Recovery of Patients Undergoing gastrointestinal cancers surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective The aim of this review was to assess the effects of electroacupuncture(EA) on gastrointestinal function, pain relief and quality of life after surgery for gastrointestinal cancer.Methods Randomised controlled trials were searched in the ten databases and assessed for methodological quality using the risk of bias tool. Meta-analyses were performed using Revman 5.3 software to examine the effects of EA.Results 19 RCTs with 1937 participants were included, the intervention of the control group was usual care (UC) in 15 RCTs and sham electroacupuncture (SA) in 4 RCTs. When EA compared with UC, the meta analysis showed a significant improvement in the time of first exhaust (-10.77 [-13.45 to -8.08]), time of first defecation (-17.91 [-25.25, -14. 32]), time to recovery of bowel sounds (-12.44 [-15.00, -9.87]), time to tolerance of liquid diet (-18.14 [-24.98, -11.29] ), time to tolerance of semi-liquid diet (-20.44 [-33.84, -7.04]), VAS day1 (-0.65 [-0.80, -0.49]), VAS day2 (-1.00 [-1.14, -0.86]), VAS day3 (-0.57 [-0.80, -0.34]), while no significantly decreasing in the hospital stay (-1.16 [-2.56, 0.24]). When EA compared with SA, the time of first exhaust (-15.78 [-24.96 to -6. 60]), time of first defecation (-20.42 [-36.14, -4.70]), hospitalization time (-1.37 [-2.69, -0.05]), time to independent walking (-0.33 [-0.62, -0.04]) was reduced by EA.Conclusion EA may improve gastrointestinal function and quality of life, relieve pain after surgery for gastrointestinal cancer compared with the controls(usual care or shame electroacupunture). Given the high degree of heterogeneity, these findings should be validated in future trials.