Progress of clinical study on treatment of hyperlipidemias with acupuncture

Objective: To summarize the clinical study on acupuncture treatment of hyperlipidemia for figuring out the existing issues and guiding the future study. Methods: Obtained by searching the scientific and technological journals database with computer, the relevant literature on acupuncture treatment of hyperlipidemia in the recent ten years is summarized and analyzed. Results and Conclusion: Forty-two pieces of the articles in conformity to the criteria of recruitment mainly refer to acupuncture, moxibustion, and simultaneous application of acupuncture and moxibustion, catgut-embedding method of the acupoints, external application of herbal products on the acupoints, and acupoint-injecting method, mostly by the acupoints of the Spleen and Stomach Meridians. But, the methods to select the acupoints by pattern identification, the application of the needling techniques and design of the test plans need to be further amended. © Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian and Springer-Verlag GmbH 2009.