SynthesisMedicine2022
Thunder-fire moxibustion for lumbar disc herniation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Medicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy of acupoint-related therapies for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy: a Bayesian network meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Comparative effectiveness of moxibustion-based combination therapies for lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of 50 randomized trials.Frontiers in neurologyPooled it
- Network Analysis of Contemporaneous Symptoms and Identification of Core Symptoms in Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- [Conservative therapy for lumbar disc herniation].Orthopadie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common degenerative disease that severely impacts the quality of life of patients. Thunder-fire moxibustion is an ancient Chinese medicine-based external therapeutic procedure that has been employed for pain relief until this day. The focus of our study was to demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of thunder-fire moxibustion in the treatment of LDH.
methodsThe literature databases searched included the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Springer, PubMed, Wanfang digital periodicals database, China national knowledge infrastructure, VIP, and Chinese biomedical literature database, and the search period was from database creation to March 2022. These include randomized controlled trials of Thunder-Fire moxibustion alone or in combination with other therapies for LDH. Two evaluators independently extracted data. We accessed the quality of inclusive studies through a Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analyses were performed using Review Manager (Version 5.5). Data was analyzed using fixed-effects or random-effects models, depending on the heterogeneity test results.
resultsThe meta-analysis included 17 studies involving 1344 patients with LDH. The analysis results were as follows: compared with other therapies, the efficacy of thunder-fire moxibustion was statistically significant; the total effective rate (RR = 1.20; 95%CI [1.15, 1.26]; P < .00001), the Japanese orthopaedic association score (MD = 4.42; 95%CI [4.10, 4.73]; P < .00001), the pain score (SMD = -2.66; 95% CI [-3.39, -1.94]; P < .00001). Only 2 reported no adverse events in the included literature, and the remaining had no relevant records. The quality of the evidence in the 17 papers we examined was low or very low.
conclusionThunder-Fire moxibustion is effective in relieving discomfort in patients with LDH. It has significant clinical efficacy, but there is still a need for prospective, multicentre, large-sample randomized controlled trials to enhance the clinical evidence due to the quality of included studies and methodological limitations.
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