• Lin Ji, Haopeng Zhang, Lihua Wang, Ziming Yin, Jingtu Cen, and Yu Guo.
• Department of Otolaryngology, Shanghai Municipal Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2023 Sep 29; 102 (39): e35019e35019.

ObjectiveTo provide evidence for medical management of tinnitus based on an assessment of the evidence concerning the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment for tinnitus using network meta-analysis (NMA).MethodsWe conducted a systematic literature review by searching 8 national and international databases (inception to February 2023) for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for tinnitus. Only RCTs that recruited participants aged over 18 and diagnosed with tinnitus, and that evaluated acupuncture or acupuncture in combination with conventional western medical therapy were included. We used response rate and tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) to examine efficacy. We conducted NMA with random effects, and the rate ratio or mean difference with its 95% credible interval was calculated. In addition, we ranked all treatments via their SUCRA and assessed the quality of evidence according to the GRADE criteria.ResultsA total of 2575 patients were included in the study. The main findings of the current NMA were that acupoint injection combined with warm acupuncture was the most effective for response rate, followed by warm acupuncture and acupoint injection combined with western medical treatment. Acupuncture combined with western medical treatment was the most effective for THI, followed by electroacupuncture combined with warm acupuncture and acupuncture combined with moxibustion.ConclusionAcupuncture seems to be a better trend treatment for tinnitus. Further rigorous RCT studies that include direct comparisons for different acupuncture-related treatments are encouraged to provide the most promising evidence for patients with tinnitus.Protocol RegistrationCRD42023398745.Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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