Curative Effect of Heat-sensitive Moxibustion on Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Primary dysmenorrhea (PD) refers to functional dysmenorrhea, typically characterized by cyclical, pronounced lower abdominal pain and seriously affects a woman's work and quality of life. Some studies have reported that heat-sensitive moxibustion (HSM) is expected to alleviate the clinical symptoms. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the current evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of HSM on PD. METHODS: 7 databases including PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan Fang Data Knowledge Service Platform (Wan Fang Data), and China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP) were searched for clinical randomized controlled trials. Meanwhile, Revman 5.3 software was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included literature. The confidence interval (CI) of either relative risk or mean difference was set to 95%. Besides, the heterogeneity of the research results is tested by I(2). RESULTS: 19 studies were ultimately included in this meta-analysis. All of them were declared as random controlled trials. 18 studies reported the total effective rate of the test group and the control group, which was significantly higher (RR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.85,0.99; P=0.031 < 0.05) than the control group. It is demonstrated that the VAS score of the test group, totally 9 studies included, was significantly lower (SMD: −0.98; 95% CI: −1.15, −0.81; P < 0.001). The meta-analysis of 6 studies showed the symptom score of the test group was significantly lower (SMD: −0.67; 95% CI: −0.87, −0.47; P < 0.001). There were the CMSS results of 3 studies which were significantly lower (SMD: −0.88; 95% CI: −1.13, −0.62; P < 0.001). Combined with the results of subgroup analysis, compared with the control group, the test group had advantages in the VAS score, symptom score, and CMSS score. CONCLUSIONS: The result has revealed the effectiveness and feasibility of HSM in treating PD, especially in improving the total effective rate and reducing the VAS score, symptom score, and CMSS score.