Meta-analysis of moxibustion in the management of functional dyspepsia

Objective: To analyze the efficacy and safety of moxibustion (A kind of complementary and alternative methods of traditional Chinese medicine) for the Functional dyspepsia (FD). Methods: Six electronic databases were searched for randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy of moxibustion in the treatment of FD. The search period was from inception to February 25, 2019. Eligible reports of RCT on the moxibustion compare with medication were enrolled. Article's quality was evaluated with the Cochrane Risk Bias Tool in the Cochrane Handbook by two independent reviewers. The Review Manager 5.3 was used to evaluate the publication bias. Result: Eleven eligible reports comprising a total of 870 participants were enrolled. The risk of bias was generally high. In the primary outcome, compared with medications, moxibustion significantly alleviated overall FD symptoms but there was a moderate inconsistency among studies (11 RCTs, RR -1.27, 95% CI [1.20, 1.36]). Moxibustion appears to be associated with few adverse events but the evidence is limited due to poor report quality. Conclusion: Moxibustion showed greater improvement in terms of clinical efficacy in the treatment of FD than pharmacological medications, and although it was not possible to draw a definitive conclusion due to the small sample size, high risk of bias, and low quality of the reports. Large multi-center and long-term high-quality randomized control trials are needed. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of World Journal of Acupuncture Moxibustion House.