Acupuncture therapy in trigeminal neuralgia: An integrative literature review

Objectives

Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a neuropathic pain, usually unilateral, affecting one or more trigeminal nerve innervation territories. The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture in TN pain control.

Methods

An integrative review was developed on Medline (Pubmed), LILACS (BVS) and Cochrane Library databases. Keywords “trigeminal neuralgia” AND “acupuncture” were combined in different ways to ensure a wide search of primary studies. Article reference lists were also screened. Inclusion criteria comprised clinical studies developed in humans, without date publication limit, published in languages English, Portuguese and Spanish, performing any type of acupuncture therapy for TN pain control.

Results

Among the six studies selected, most were randomized controlled clinical trials, developed in China. Only one study performed a retrospective cross-sectional. To assess pain, most used the VAS scale. There were very similar methods concerning points selection and treatment protocols. All studies found a significant decrease in pain frequency or intensity, disregarding the type of acupuncture applied.

Conclusion

Acupuncture therapy seems to decrease frequency and intensity of TN pain episodes, alone or in combination with gold standard medications. However, there is a need for standardizing methodological issues and prospective evaluations.