Acupuncture for polycystic ovary syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Polycystic ovary syndrome is a kind of endocrine and metabolic disease. It can lead to ovulation failure and hyperandrogenism. Numerous clinical studies have reported that acupuncture is effective for the disease. This paper aims to assess the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome by a systematic review. Searched Chinese Biomedical Literature database, China Academic Journal, Chinese Biomedical database, Articals on the Chinese Medical Association, Cochrane Central Register of controlled trials database, PubMed database, Embase medical database. The risk of bias was evaluated by Cochrane reviews handbook 5.2.0 and the statistics were analyzed by Review Manage 5.2 software. A total of 317 papers published in formal academic journals were found. 6 papers of high quality randomized clinical literature were screened out. 2 reports on side-effect were described in 6 articles. Totally 6 articles involving 587 cases were included. Acupuncture was safe in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome. The total effective rate of acupuncture group was better than controlled group and the difference had statistically significance. The literature review shows that acupuncture is effective in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome, but it is not definite due to relatively low level of evidence. More high quality evidences are needed.