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Effect of Acupuncture on Outcomes of in vitro Fertilisation: A Scoping Review

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Abstract

Objectives

To identify, examine and summarize the available evidence on the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for in vitro fertilisation (IVF) outcomes.

Methods

Eight electronic databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Review, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, Chinese Biomedical Database and VIP Database, were searched, supplemented by manual searches. Two researchers independently conducted the literature screening, data extraction, and methodological quality assessments. A narrative description was provided to show the general information and specific characteristics of the included studies. A bubble plot was used to visually display the overall effects of acupuncture on IVF outcomes.

Results

Eighty-two studies were identified, including 64 primary studies and 18 systematic reviews. Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation, electric acupuncture and manual acupuncture were applied in most studies and compared with no acupuncture, sham acupuncture and placebo acupuncture control groups. Sixty-three (98.4%) primary studies reported clinical pregnancy rate, and positive effects of acupuncture were found in 34 studies (54.0%). Live birth rate was reported in only 18 (28.1%) primary studies, of which 10 (55.6%) showed positive results. In addition, only 8 and 2 systematic reviews showed that acupuncture could increase clinical pregnancy events and live birth events, respectively. However, none of these reviews was of high methodological quality.

Conclusions

Available evidence suggests that acupuncture therapy could improve clinical pregnancy rates. However, whether acupuncture could increase live birth events was difficult to determine based on the few studies that have reported this outcome indicator. Furthermore, the methodological quality of most systematic reviews was assessed as critically low or low. Studies with a rigorous design and standardized implementation should be performed to refine the available evidence.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank ZENG Zhao for her help with literature searching.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, 100700, China

    Wen-cui Xiu, Wei-juan Gang, Rui-min Jiao, Lan-jun Shi, Ji-wei Yang, Xiang-hong Jing & Xiao-shuang Shi

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  1. Wen-cui Xiu
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  2. Wei-juan Gang
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  3. Rui-min Jiao
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  4. Lan-jun Shi
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  5. Ji-wei Yang
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  7. Xiao-shuang Shi
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Contributions

Xiu WC: literature screening, data extraction and writing-original draft. Shi XS: literature screening and data extraction. Jiao RM, Shi LJ and Yang JW: literature search and methodological quality evaluation. Gang WJ and Jing XH: writing-review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao-shuang Shi.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors do not have any conflict of interests to disclose.

Supported by Innovation Fund of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (No. CI2021A03503), “The Belt and Road” TCM Cooperation Project of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (No. GH201901) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Public Welfare Research Institutes (No. ZZ13-024-9)

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Xiu, Wc., Gang, Wj., Jiao, Rm. et al. Effect of Acupuncture on Outcomes of in vitro Fertilisation: A Scoping Review. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 28, 472–480 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-021-3459-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-021-3459-6

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