Clinical efficacy of acupoint catgut embedding in the treatment of allergic rhinitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

To evaluate the efficacy of acupoint catgut embedding in the treatment of allergic rhinitis by Meta-analysis. Pubmed, Web of Science, Embase, Elsevier, CNKI, and VIP databases were searched for clinical randomized controlled trials (RCTS) on acupoint catgut embedding for allergic rhinitis from the establishment of the database to December 30, 2022. RevMan5.4 and Stata12 software were used for Meta-analysis. A total of 17 articles were included, involving 1231 patients. Meta-analysis showed that the total effective rate of acupoint catgut embedding for allergic rhinitis was higher than that of the control group [Pooled Odds Ratio = 5.19, 95%CI (3.14, 8.58), P < 0.00001]. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the total effective rate of acupoint catgut embedding in the treatment of allergic rhinitis was stable. The efficacy of the acupoint embedding group was better than that of the western medicine group [OR = 5.78, 95%CI (3.25, 10.27), P < 0.00001]. Acupoint embedding decreased serum IL-33 levels [MD = −70.79, 95%CI (−102.60, −38.98), P < 0.0001] and improved TNNSS score [MD = −0.25, 95%CI (−0.40, −0.11), P = 0.0005] was statistically different from the control group. Acupoint catgut embedding in the treatment of allergic rhinitis has a certain effect, but the accuracy of this conclusion still needs to be verified by higher-quality RCT in the later stage.