Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture in Renal Colic Caused by Urinary Calculi in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Acute renal colic caused by urinary calculi has a considerable impact on the quality of life. Pain relief is the primary goal in the management of patients with acute renal colic caused by urinary calculi. At present, there is no systematic evaluation of the efficacy and safety of manual acupuncture in the treatment of acute renal colic caused by urinary calculi in adults.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of manual acupuncture in the treatment of acute renal colic caused by urinary calculi in adults.

Methods: Databases of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Medical, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals (VIP), and China Biomedical Literature (SinoMed) were searched for literature and other randomized controlled registration platforms. We searched to identify the relevant randomized controlled trials from the establishment of the database to February 9, 2022. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of manual acupuncture as the therapy for acute renal colic caused by urinary calculi in adults were included, whether or not the blind method is used. The patients were adults diagnosed with urinary calculi and renal colic. The control group was treated with commonly used analgesics and antispasmodics. The experimental group was treated with acupuncture as a monotherapy or as an adjuvant therapy (manual acupuncture combined with analgesics and antispasmodics). Two review authors independently assessed titles and abstracts for relevance and extracted data on study design, participants, interventions, and outcomes from potentially relevant articles. Cochrane risk bias assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included study, and RevMan5.4 software was used for meta-analysis. Our primary outcomes were response rate and time duration before pain remission. Secondary outcomes were the time of complete pain relief, pain variation, need for rescue analgesia, and adverse events.

Results: Out of 1123 records identified, 15 were found to be of relevance to this study, and 1210 participants were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis of the results shows that, in terms of response rate, compared with the control group, acupuncture as a monotherapy seems to have a slight advantage (RR = 1.10 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.18), I ² = 28%, P=0.004), while acupuncture as an adjuvant therapy has no advantage (RR = 1.06 (95% CI: 0.95, 1.20), I ² = 77%, P=0.30). In terms of duration before pain relief, acupuncture as a monotherapy had an advantage over the control group (MD = -10.28(95% CI: -14.40, -6.17), I ² = 93%, P < 0.00001). Acupuncture as a monotherapy was similar to positive medication in terms of complete pain relief (MD = -7.13 (95% CI: -20.19, 5.94), I ² = 95%, P=0.28). Pain variation: VAS scores at 10 min, acupuncture as a monotherapy (MD = -2.47 (95% CI: -3.40, -1.53), I ² = 84%, P < 0.00001) or as an adjuvant therapy (MD = -3.38 (95% CI: -4.33, -2.43), I ² = 60%, P < 0.00001) was better than the control group. VAS scores at 30 min, compared with the control group, there was no difference between acupuncture as a monotherapy (MD = -0.27 (95% CI: -1.43, 0.88), I ² = 88%, P=0.64) and acupuncture as an adjuvant therapy (MD = -1.17 (95% CI: -3.15, 0.81), I ² = 96%, P=0.25). VAS scores at 60 min, compared with the control group, there was no difference in the acupuncture as a monotherapy (MD = 0.58 (95% CI: -0.28, 1.45), I ² = 77%, P=0.19), while acupuncture as an adjuvant therapy was better (MD = -1.22 (95% CI: -1.93, -0.51), I ² = 72%, P=0.0007). VAS scores at 120 min, there was no difference in acupuncture as a monotherapy compared to the control group (MD = -0.24 (95% CI:-1.22, 0.75), I ² = 0, P=0.64). One study reported on rescue analgesia. Fewer adverse events occurred in the experimental group compared to the control group.

Conclusion: In the course of manual acupuncture treatment of acute renal colic caused by urinary calculi in adults, available evidence suggests that manual acupuncture is as effective as positive treatment drugs, either as a monotherapy or as an adjunctive therapy, with the advantage of acupuncture being its rapid onset of action. However, the number of existing clinical studies is small, and the quality of evidence is generally low, so it is recommended to use it with caution. In order to further verify the above conclusions, more high-quality clinical RCTs need to be carried out. Trial Registration. The present review protocol was registered with the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (CRD42019134900).