SynthesisFrontiers in medicine2025
Acupuncture combined with mouse nerve growth factor in the treatment of peripheral facial palsies: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Background: Peripheral facial palsies (PFP) had been listed as a dominant disease of acupuncture. Numerous researchers had utilized acupuncture in conjunction with mouse nerve growth factor (mNGF) for PFP. However, there is little relevant systematic and standardized evidence-based medicine, and the efficacy of this treatment modality is currently controversial. Objective: To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture combined with mNGF for PFP. Methods: We systematically searched seven databases from their inception to 10 May 2024 to identify relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included literature, RevMan 5.4 software was used to test for heterogeneity, Stata v.15. SE software was used to perform egger test and sensitivity analysis. Results: Results from 36 RCTs involving 2,750 patients showed that compared with single therapy, combination therapy can improve scores in the overall effective rate (RR = 1.21, 95% CI [1.17, 1.25], Conclusion: These findings suggest that the treatment of PFP with acupuncture combined with mNGF has a certain superiority over acupuncture alone or mNGF alone. It can be used as one of the therapeutic strategies for the treatment of PFP. However, the certainty and external authenticity of the evidence is limited due to the low quality of the methods and geographical concentration of the included studies. Systematic review registration: Identifier CRD42024548516.
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