Pregnancy Benefit of Acupuncture on in vitro Fertilization : A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

© 2023. The Chinese Journal of Integrated Traditional and Western Medicine Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature..

BACKGROUND: Currently, more and more infertility couples are opting for combined acupuncture to improve success rate of in vitro fertilization (IVF). However, evidence from acupuncture for improving IVF pregnancy outcomes remains a matter of debate.

OBJECTIVE: To quantitatively summarized the evidence of the efficacy of acupuncture among women undergoing IVF by means of systematic review and meta-analysis.

METHODS: Four English (PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Cochrane Register of Controlled Clinical Trials) and Four Chinese databases (Wanfang Databases, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, and SinoMed) were searched from database inception until July 2, 2023. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the acupuncture's effects for women undergoing IVF were included. The subgroup analysis was conducted with respect to the age of participants, different acupuncture types, type of control, acupuncture timing, geographical origin of the study, whether or not repeated IVF failure, and acupuncture sessions. Sensitivity analyses were predefifined to explore the robustness of results. The primary outcomes were clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) and live birth rate (LBR), and the secondary outcomes were ongoing pregnancy rate and miscarriage rate. Random effects model with I2 statistics were used to quantify heterogeneity. Publication bias was estimated by funnel plots and Egger's tests.

RESULTS: A total of 58 eligible RCTs representing 10,968 women undergoing IVF for pregnant success were identifified. Pooled CPR and LBR showed a signifificant difference between acupuncture and control groups [69 comparisons, relative risk (RR) 1.19, 95% confifidence intervals (CI) 1.12 to 1.25, I2=0], extremely low evidence; 23 comparisons, RR 1.11, 95%CI 1.02 to 1.21, I2=14.6, low evidence, respectively). Only transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation showed a positive effect on both CPR (16 comparisons, RR 1.17, 95%CI 1.06 to 1.29; I2=0, moderate evidence) and LBR (9 comparisons, RR 1.20, 95%CI 1.04 to 1.37; I2=8.5, extremely low evidence). Heterogeneity across studies was found and no studies were graded as high-quality evidence.

CONCLUSION: Results showed that the convincing evidence levels on the associations between acupuncture and IVF pregnant outcomes were relatively low, and the varied methodological design and heterogeneity might inflfluence the fifindings. (Registration No. PROSPERO CRD42021232430).

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:29

Enthalten in:

Chinese journal of integrative medicine - 29(2023), 11 vom: 10. Nov., Seite 1021-1032

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Zhang, Hao-Ran [VerfasserIn]
Zhang, Cheng [VerfasserIn]
Ma, Pei-Hong [VerfasserIn]
Sun, Cheng-Yi [VerfasserIn]
Sun, Chong-Yang [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Xiao-Yu [VerfasserIn]
Pu, Zhen-Qing [VerfasserIn]
Lin, Yu-Han [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Bao-Yan [VerfasserIn]
Liu, Cun-Zhi [VerfasserIn]
Yan, Shi-Yan [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Acupuncture
Clinical pregnancy rate
In vitro fertilization
Journal Article
Live birth rate
Meta-Analysis
Meta-analysis
Review
Systematic Review
Systematic review

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 30.10.2023

Date Revised 30.10.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1007/s11655-023-3748-3

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM363088733