To assess the effectiveness of acupuncture as complementary therapy for gouty arthritis from randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Five electronic databases, including English and Chinese, were systematically searched until August 2012. All RCTs involving acupuncture in combination with conventional therapy for gouty arthritis were included.
Ten RCTs involving 852 gouty arthritis patients were systematically reviewed. Among them six studies of 512 patients reported a significant decrease in uric acid in the treatment group compared with a control group, while two studies of 120 patients reported no significant decrease in uric acid in the treatment group compared with the control group. The remaining four studies of 380 patients reported a significant decrease in visual analogue scale score in the treatment group.
The results of the studies included here suggest that acupuncture is efficacious as complementary therapy for gouty arthritis patients. More research and well-designed, rigorous and large clinical trials are necessary to address these issues.