• Hanyu Xu, Linna Wu, Te Ba, Liqing Niu, Yuan Zhang, and Xiaofeng Zhao.
• Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department, First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2024 Jun 7; 103 (23): e38403e38403.

BackgroundElectroacupuncture (EA) is considered as an effective treatment for urinary retention (UR).MethodsUp to April 7, 2023, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of EA for UR were extensively searched in 8 databases, including Pubmed, Cochrane, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Chinese Journal Full-text Database, Wanfang Data, and VIP Full-text e-Journals Database. The Cochrane Risk of Bias tool and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) were utilized to evaluate the quality of all included RCTs. Meta-analysis was conducted using Stata 15.0 software.ResultsA total of 23 trials were included, and the meta-analysis results suggested that compared with the control group, EA can effectively treat various types of UR (risk ratio [RR] = 1.22, 95CI%: 1.14, 1.31) and promote bladder function recovery, with a significant reduce in residual urine volume (weighted mean differences [WMD] = -49.60, 95CI%: -64.10, -35.11), an increase in maximum bladder capacity (WMD = 47.00, 95CI%: 12.76, 81.24), a shorten in the first urination time (standardized mean difference [SMD] = -1.42, 95CI%: -2.08, -0.76), and less adverse reactions (RR = 0.21, 95CI%: 0.07, 0.65).ConclusionEA has significant advantages in treating UR, but the efficacy and safety are still needed to be further verified through large-sample and high-quality RCTs.Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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