Systematic Review on Electroacupuncture for Acute Pancreatitis

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of electroacupuncture on acute pancreatitis (AP). Method: The search engines that were used included PubMed, CNKI, OASIS, NDSL, the Korean Traditional Knowledge Portal, and J-STAGE. The search period was from the creation of the search engine to May 6, 2019; there were no language limitations. Extractions and selections from the literation were made by two authors. The study included randomized controlled trials with electroacupuncture for patients with acute pancreatitis. Cochrane’s risk of bias (RoB) was used as the methodological quality assessment scale. Results: Nine studies were finally selected. It was observed that using electroacupuncture with general Western medicine treatment for AP was more effective than using only general Western medicine treatment. Although most of the studies showed a high risk of bias, there were significant differences among the indicators. Conclusion: The electroacupuncture treatment with Western medicine may be more effective in reducing symptoms of AP than Western medicine alone. However, due to the limitations of the research design, it was not enough to obtain reliable information. As a result, high quality research will be additionally required. Keywords: electroacupuncture, systematic review, acute pancreaitis, RCT