SynthesisFrontiers in medicine2025
Acupuncture combined therapy for the treatment of nape dorsal myofascial pain syndrome: meta-analysis, systematic evaluation, and GRADE evaluation.
Synthesis in Frontiers in medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Fascia as a Functional System in Health and Disease: From Fundamental Biology to Assessment and Targeted Interventions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: This study aimed to assess the therapeutic efficacy and safety risks of acupuncture combined therapy in nape dorsal myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) management. Methods: Clinical randomized controlled trials of acupuncture combined therapy for nape dorsal myofascial pain syndrome were retrieved from databases such as China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP Chinese Journal Platform, Wanfang Data, SinoMed, Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, and Scopus, covering publications from respective inception dates until 26 February 2025. Methodological quality appraisal involved dual assessments: GRADEprofiler 3.6 evaluated evidence certainty, while the Cochrane risk of bias (RoB) 2.0 tool analyzed bias risk. Statistical computations encompassed meta-analysis, heterogeneity analysis, sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis, publication bias analysis, and trim-and-fill methods performed using StataSE 15, stateMP 18, and RevMan 5.4. Results: The systematic review incorporated 21 randomized controlled trials with a pooled cohort of 1,630 patients. ➀ Meta-analysis revealed that compared with control groups, acupuncture combined therapy can improve Visual Analogue Scale (VAS); score [standardized mean difference (SMD) = -1.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) (-2.12, -0.90), Conclusion: Acupuncture combined therapy demonstrates clinically significant short-term benefits for nape dorsal MPS in pain relief and clinical effective rate. Existing limited evidence shows a low incidence of adverse events, but the risk profile cannot be fully clarified due to insufficient safety reporting in the majority of studies. Future rigorously designed, high-quality studies with diverse populations are needed to verify these findings. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, Unique Identifier: CRD420251000444.
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Registered trials
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.