Meta-analysis of clinical efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion in rehabilitation treatment for post-stroke aphasia

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese acupuncture and moxibustion in treating post-stroke aphasia through meta-analysis. METHODS Major Chinese and international databases were searched from their inception to December 2023. The search terms included "randomized controlled clinical studies on acupuncture treatment for stroke-related aphasia". After screening by specialists, the selected studies were analyzed using RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS A total of 1,900 documents were retrieved, of which 10 studies involving 848 cases met the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. The results indicated that traditional Chinese acupuncture could enhance the effectiveness of language rehabilitation training both as a standalone treatment and in combination with other assessment measures. Acupuncture improved the clinical effectiveness of language rehabilitation training for patients with post-stroke aphasia (RR = 3.75, 95% CI [2.54, 2.55], P < 0.00001). When combined with language rehabilitation therapy, acupuncture significantly improved patients' comprehension (MD = 0.95, 95% CI [0.89, 1.02], P < 0.00001), repetition (MD = 0.82, 95% CI [0.76, 0.88], P < 0.00001), reading (MD = 1.95, 95% CI [1.89, 2.01], P < 0.00001), and spontaneous speech abilities (MD = 10.90, 95% CI [9.56, 12.23], P < 0.00001), compared to the control group. CONCLUSION Acupuncture improves the clinical efficacy of language rehabilitation training for stroke-related aphasia. It also enhanced patients' comprehension, repetition, and spontaneous speech abilities more effectively than monotherapy. However, the overall quality of the included studies was low, emphasizing the need for high-quality randomized controlled trials to further validate these findings.