Clinical effectiveness and safety of acupotomy: An overview of systematic reviews

Acupotomy is a modern type of acupuncture that uses a blade-needle combined with a flat surgical scalpel at its tip. This study was conducted to summarize and critically evaluate the current evidence on acupotomy.

All relevant studies up to February 19, 2019, were included, through comprehensive searches in 11 electronic databases without language restrictions.

Eleven systematic reviews (SRs) comprising of 69 randomized controlled trials were included, and the methodological quality was medium-to-high in AMSTAR. All the included studies reviewed musculoskeletal disorders and reported a significantly higher total effective and cure rates in the acupotomy group for frozen shoulder, cervical spondylosis, third lumbar vertebrae transverse process syndrome, trigger finger, knee osteoarthritis, and lumbar spinal stenosis, compared to the other active control groups.

Acupotomy showed promising results for some musculoskeletal disorders; however, additional high-quality evidence is required to make clinical recommendations regarding this procedure.