Beneficial effects of auricular acupressure on preventing constipation in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: evidence from systematic review and meta-analysis
Article Category: Original Article
Published Online: Oct 25, 2018
Page range: 227 - 234
Received: Nov 30, 2017
Accepted: Feb 02, 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/fon-2018-0030
Keywords
© 2018 Su-Hua Zheng et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
Objective
To evaluate the available evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of auricular acupressure (AA) therapy for preventing constipation in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Methods
The following databases were searched from their inception until August 2017: Ovid Medline, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and Allied and Alternative Medieine (AMED). We also searched four Chinese databases: Chinese BioMedical Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WANFANG Data, and Chinese VIP Database. Only the RCTs related to the effects of AA therapy on preventing constipation in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were included in this study. Quantitative syntheses of data from RCTs were conducted using RevMan 5.3 software. Study selection, data extraction, and validation were performed independently by two authors. Cochrane criteria for risk of bias were used to assess the methodological quality of the trials.
Results
Four RCTs met the inclusion criteria, and most were of low methodological quality. Study participants in the AA plus routine care group showed significantly greater improvements in the response rate (risk ratio [RR] = 1.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.14,1.42],
Conclusions
Overall, as a potential safety therapy, only weak evidence can support the hypothesis that AA can effectively prevent constipation in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.