• Yichen Xuan, Haifeng Zhang, Duanyong Liu, Yiyong Huang, Linhui Li, Qianan Cao, and Yong Fu.
• Nanchang Medical College, Nanchang, China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2022 Feb 18; 101 (7): e28919e28919.

BackgroundNeedling and ibuprofen are often used clinically to treat primary dysmenorrhea (PD). However, the difference between the efficacy and safety of the treatment of PD is not clear. This study evaluates the efficacy and safety of simple-needling for PD patients through a comparison with ibuprofen.MethodsA comprehensive search of 7 electronic databases and relevant medical journals, from the establishment of the publication to December 2020. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to evaluate the methodological quality of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that met the inclusion criteria, and a meta-analysis was performed with the Review Manager version (RevMan version 5.3).ResultsTwenty three RCTs were included. The meta-analysis reported that simple-needling groups had better than ibuprofen groups on cure rate (relative risk = 2.29, 95% CI [1.96, 2.68], P < .00001) and total effective rate (relative risk = 1.24, 95% CI [1.19, 1.29], P < .00001) and VAS score (MD = -1.24, 95% CI [-1.92, -0.55], P = .0004). Seven studies reported adverse events, of which 4 studies had mild adverse events.ConclusionSimple-needling is superior to ibuprofen treatment in terms of clinical efficacy and improvement of pain symptoms. A small number of studies reported whether simple-needling produced adverse events, so there is not enough evidence to support the safety of simple-needling in the treatment of PD.Prospero Registration NumberCRD42021233403.Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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