Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25192034›Full record

SynthesisJournal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.)2014

Acupuncture for the treatment of spasticity after stroke: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Si-Woon Park, Sook-Hee Yi, Jung Ah Lee, Pil Woo Hwang, Hyun Cheol Yoo, Kyoung Sook Kang

Abstract readMeta-Analysis
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016
    Pooled it
  3. Trial
  4. Trial
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Si-Woon Park1 Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Korea National Rehabilitation Center , Seoul, Korea.
Sook-Hee Yi
Jung Ah Lee
Pil Woo Hwang
Hyun Cheol Yoo
Kyoung Sook Kang

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesAcupuncture has been suggested as a treatment for spasticity in patients with stroke. The available literature was reviewed in an effort to assess its efficacy in this situation.

methodsRandomized trials assessing the effects of acupuncture for the treatment of spasticity after stroke were identified by searching the Cochrane Library, PubMed, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, SCOPUS, CINAHL, EMBASE, Alternative Medicine Database, and Chinese and Korean medical literature databases. Two reviewers independently extracted data on study characteristics, patient characteristics, and spasticity outcomes.

resultsEight trials with 399 patients met all the inclusion criteria. Compared with controls without acupuncture, acupuncture had no effect on improving clinical outcomes (as measured by validated instruments such as the Modified Ashworth Scale) or physiologic outcomes (assessed by measures such as the H-reflex/M-response [H/M] ratio at the end of the treatment period). H/M ratios did decrease significantly immediately after the first acupuncture treatment. Methodologic quality of all evaluated trials was considered inadequate.

conclusionsThe effect of acupuncture for spasticity in patients with stroke remains uncertain, primarily because of the poor quality of the available studies. Larger and more methodologically sound trials are needed to definitively confirm or refute any effect of acupuncture as a treatment for spasticity after stroke.

Indexed as

Acupuncture TherapyHumansMuscle SpasticityStrokeTreatment Outcome

Identifiers

PMID25192034
PMCPMC4155415

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.