Comparison of Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in Acute Phase and Non-acute Phase of Bell's Palsy: a meta-analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture and moxibustion for bell's palsy in the acute phase compared with the non-acute phase.

Methods: Computer retrieval of PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI), Wanfang data, were conducted. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the quality of literature was evaluated, and useful data was extracted. All statistical analyses were performed by RevMan5.3 software.

Results: 17 eligible RCTs with a total of 2644 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The meta-analysis results demonstrated the cure rate of acupuncture and moxibustion for Bell's palsy in the acute phase were lower than that in the non-acute phase (P<0.05). The time to cure of acupuncture and moxibustion for Bell's palsy in the acute phase was shorter than that in the non-acute phase (P<0.05), and the incidence of sequelae during the treatment period of acupuncture and moxibustion for Bell's palsy in the acute phase were lower than that in non-acute phase (P<0.05).

Conclusions: Acupuncture and moxibustion were safe and effective stimulation for Bell's palsy in the acute phase compared with the non-acute phase, improving the cure rate of Bell's palsy, shorten the time to cure, and reduce the occurrence of sequelae. However, more multicenter RCTs with a large sample number and high quality should verify the conclusion mentioned above.