Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture for Pain Management in Women Undergoing Transvaginal Oocyte Retrieval

OBJECTIVE: To obtain evidence-based conclusions about the effect of acupuncture on pain relief in women undergoing oocyte retrieval, the results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that met the criteria were assessed on the Pain Assessment Scale and pregnancy indicators. SEARCH METHODS: References were retrieved in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CNKI database, CBM database, VIP database, and Wanfang database from inception to June 26, 2021. Unpublished ongoing trials were searched in the Clinical Trials Registries. This review included RCTs that investigated the acupuncture analgesic effects during oocyte retrieval in women undergoing in vitro fertilization. RESULTS: Fourteen RCTs (2503 women in total) with six types of comparisons were finally included. The quality of concluding evidence was generally low or very low. Performance bias and outcome assessment bias was the main risk of bias of the included studies. Acupuncture combined with conscious sedation and analgesia (CSA) was associated with less intraoperative (SMD=−1.03; 95% CI: −1.71 to −0.36) and postoperative (SMD = −1.11; 95% CI: −1.51 to −0.71) pain compared to receive CSA alone in oocyte retrieval. Acupuncture with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) was more effective than using NSAIDs alone for postoperative analgesia (MD = −1.76; 95% CI: −2.08 to −1.44). CONCLUSION: Acupuncture complex analgesic therapy is more effective than utilizing CSA or NSAIDs alone. Furthermore, there is no significant consensus on whether there is an analgesic effect of applying acupuncture alone during oocyte retrievals, which needs further research. The overall results should be interpreted with caution due to the high risk of bias/low-GRADE scores among these studies. PROTOCOL AND REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020170095.