SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Med.
Sec. Dermatology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1498795
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in skin immunologyView all 8 articles
Clinical Efficacy and Safety of Acupuncture for Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
- 2Xiamen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China
- 3Qinghai University Medical College, Xining, Qinghai Province, China
- 4Jinjiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, quanzhou, China
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Objective: This study aims to systematically evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture in treating chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), providing evidence to inform clinical decision-making. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search of eight Chinese and English databases up to August 20, 2024, including randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for CSU, without language restrictions. Two independent researchers screened the literature, evaluated quality, and cross-checked the results. The extracted data were subjected to meta-analysis using RevMan 5.4 and Stata 15. Results: A total of 22 RCTs involving 1,867 patients were included.Meta-analysis showed that acupuncture significantly improved the overall response rate, reduced recurrence rate, decreased urticaria activity score (UAS7), and improved dermatology life quality index (DLQI), Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD), VAS itching score, and the chronic urticaria quality of life questionnaire (CU-Q2oL) scores.Acupuncture also reduced the number and size of wheals, shortened the duration of flare-ups, and lowered serum IgE, IFN-γ, and IL-4 levels. Traditional Chinese medicine syndrome scores were also significantly reduced, all with statistical significance. Furthermore, acupuncture did not significantly increase the incidence of adverse events, indicating good safety. However, moderate to high bias and heterogeneity were present in the included RCTs.Based on GRADE evidence, we provide a moderate to low recommendation for acupuncture in treating CSU, although the results remain promising.Acupuncture appears to be an effective and safe treatment for CSU.However, further high-quality RCTs are needed to confirm its clinical efficacy and safety.
Keywords: Acupuncture, chronic spontaneous urticaria, Urticaria, Meta-analysis, Systematic review
Received: 19 Sep 2024; Accepted: 21 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 wang, Yuxiang, Zhang, li, cheng and zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: wenjie zhao, Xiamen Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Xiamen, Fujian Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.