• Sang-Joon An, Woo-Chul Shin, Sungjun Joo, Jae-Heung Cho, Won-Seok Chung, Mi-Yeon Song, and Hyungsuk Kim.
• Department of Clinical Korean Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2024 Sep 13; 103 (37): e39696e39696.

BackgroundShoulder impingement syndrome (SIS) is a common condition that causes chronic shoulder pain. The effectiveness of acupuncture in treating chronic shoulder pain has been documented in previous studies; however, existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses have often excluded Chinese databases and combined different types of acupuncture interventions, such as electroacupuncture, warm acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, and acupotomy. Thus, this study specifically examines the exclusive impact of manual acupuncture on SIS.MethodsSeveral databases, including PubMed, Cochrane Central, Embase, 1 Chinese database (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), and 5 Korean databases (ScienceON, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, KoreaMed, Korean Studies Information Service System, and KMBASE), were systematically searched for relevant studies. The quality of the included studies was evaluated using the Cochrane Assessment Tool for Risk of Bias Version 2. Data collected from the selected studies were synthesized for meta-analysis. The primary outcome was a pain scale score, and the secondary outcomes were shoulder function and disability.ResultsThis study included 5 randomized controlled trials. The primary outcome assessment revealed significantly reduced pain (standardized mean difference [SMD] = -0.50, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.74 to -0.27) and improvements in shoulder function and disability (SMD = -0.57, 95% CI = -0.96 to -0.19). A subgroup analysis based on treatment duration indicated that short-term acupuncture treatment (≤4 weeks) exhibited a high level of confidence with low heterogeneity (SMD = -0.37, 95% CI = -0.73 to -0.02).ConclusionManual acupuncture is effective for relieving pain and improving shoulder function and disability in patients with SIS. However, further research is necessary to validate these findings owing to the limited number of patients and heterogeneity among the studies reviewed.Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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