The Efficacy of Acupuncture in Managing Patients With Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome: A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objectives: This study aimed to systemically review published randomized control trials that compared the efficacy of acupuncture with sham acupuncture or standard medical treatment as management for chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS). Methods: A systemic search of the PubMED (R), Embase, Airiti Library, and China Journal Net was done for all randomized controlled trials that compared the efficacy of acupuncture with sham acupuncture, alpha-blockers, antibiotics, or anti-inflammatory drugs in patients with CP/CPPS. Two investigators conducted the literature search, quality assessment, and data extraction. The data were then analyzed using the Cochrane Collaboration Review Manager (RevMan (R), version 5.3). The study endpoints were response rate, the National Institute of Health-Chronic Prostatitis Index (NIH-CPSI), and the International Prostate symptom score (IPSS) reduction. Results: Three and four randomized controlled trials compared acupuncture with sham acupuncture (n = 101 vs. 103) and medical treatment (n = 156 vs. 138), respectively. The results revealed that acupuncture was superior to sham acupuncture as regards response rate (OR: 5.15, 95%CI: 2.72-9.75; P < 0.01), NIH-CPSI (WMD: -6.09, 95%CI: -7.85 to -4.33), and IPSS (WMD: -2.44, 95%CI: -4.86 to -0.03; P = 0.05) reductions, therefore, excluding the placebo effect. Compared to standard medical treatments, acupuncture had a significantly higher response rate (OR: 3.57, 95%CI: 1.78-7.15; P < 0.01). Conclusions: Acupuncture has promising efficacy for patients with CP/CPPS. Compared to standard medical treatment, it has better efficacy. Thus, it may also serve as a standard treatment option when available. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.