BACKGROUND: Myofascial Pain Syndrome (MPS) is a prevalent musculoskeletal condition. Acupuncture therapy demonstrates significant advantages due to its unique mechanism of action. However, there are notable discrepancies in the evidence levels among various acupuncture therapies, and direct comparative data between different treatments remain scarce.
METHODS: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating acupuncture therapy for MPS in Neck or shoulder were systematically retrieved from CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science up to April 30, 2025. Network Meta-analysis was conducted using Stata 16.0.
RESULTS: This study included 29 RCTs, involving a total of 2424 patients. Thirteen types of interventions were evaluated in the experimental groups: Fu's subcutaneous needling, Internal heat acupuncture, Electroacupuncture, Round-point needle, Needle knife, Moxibustion, Sunken cord, Acupoint injection, Conventional acupuncture + Moxibustion, Conventional acupuncture + Bloodletting, Conventional acupuncture + Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Conventional acupuncture + Tuina, and Conventional acupuncture + Exercise. Regarding the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores:The top three therapies based on the Surface Under the Cumulative Ranking Curve (SUCRA) values were Moxibustion (0.84), Internal heat acupuncture (0.84), and Conventional acupuncture + Moxibustion (0.79). In terms of efficacy, based on the SUCRA rankings for both outcome indicators, Internal heat acupuncture was identified as having the best overall effect.
CONCLUSION: Based on the findings of this study, multiple acupuncture methods exhibit significant advantages over conventional acupuncture. Comprehensive analysis indicates that Internal heat acupuncture has the most favorable therapeutic effect.
| Discipline Area | Score |
|---|---|
| Physician |  |
| Rehab Clinician (OT/PT) |  |
Rehab Clinician (OT/PT) rater
This study looked at many variations of acupuncture. They were not described, so it was difficult to understand what was being compared. There were different combinations of acupuncture treatments that needed clarification and further explanation. For example, "acupuncture with nursing." What does that mean? What does Acupoint injection mean? Injected with what? Depending on what was injected, is it still acupuncture or is it a trigger point injection? There are many limitations of this paper. One was that most of the outcome measures were subjective and another was a lack of patient satisfaction measures, which I think is very important. This study would be difficult to reproduce based on the lack of description of the various acupuncture methods. It is interesting to know that there are distinct advantages for some types of acupuncture over others, but for those of us in Western Medicine, that knowledge is only valuable if we understand exactly what the various treatments entail.
, McMaster University