Evaluating the Efficacy of Acupuncture for the Treatment of Intervertebral Disc Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Canine and Human Clinical Studies

Intervertebral disc disease (IVDD) in dogs and humans causes pain and limits movement. This systematic review and meta-analysis analyzed published literature to determine the efficacy of acupuncture treatment to enhance outcomes for these patients. Literature was obtained through the following search engines: Library & Information Resources Network, Google Scholar, PubMed, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. The following keywords were used for the literature search: “Intervertebral disc disease”, “Intervertebral disc herniation”, “Acupuncture”, and “Treatment” (and/or “therapy”). Inclusion criteria for meta-analysis required canine or human controlled studies reporting treatment outcome data that evaluated acupuncture’s efficacy. Fifty-five articles underwent in-depth review, with 12 studies (5 canine, 7 human) identified for meta-analysis. In canine studies, findings demonstrated combining acupuncture with conventional treatment was significantly more effective than conventional treatment only, both for treatment success rate (p=0.0006) and shorter recovery time (p=0.0012). In human studies, findings also demonstrated combining acupuncture with conventional treatment was significantly more effective than conventional treatment alone in terms of treatment success rate (p=0.008), as well as better scores on visual analog scale (p=0.0001), Japanese Orthopedic Association scale (p=0.0038), and pain score (p=0.0103). In addition, acupuncture treatment alone in human studies had a significantly improved treatment success rate when compared to conventional treatment only (p=0.014). Despite promising early results, the current body of evidence is limited by the small number of controlled studies available for review. Further well-designed clinical trials are essential to determine the validity of these findings and establish effective evidence-based acupuncture treatment protocols.