Acupuncture treatment of facial spasm: An overview of systematic reviews

To provide evidence, this review evaluated the methodological quality, risk of bias, and reporting quality of SRs/MAs in the treatment of Facial Spasm with acupuncture. METHODS: Systematic reviews and Meta analyses (SRs/MAs) of acupuncture for Facial Spasm were retrieved from 8 databases from inception to October 1, 2022. Two reviewers independently screened the literature and extracted the data, then used Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews-2 (AMSTAR-2), Bias Risk in Systematic Review (ROBIS), and Preferred Report Item for Systematic review and Meta–analysis (PRISMA), Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) to assess methodological quality, risk of bias, quality of reporting, and quality of evidence. RESULTS: A total of 8 SRs/meta-analyses were included. All the SRs were published between 2012–2022. Based on AMSTAR-2, 8 SRs were rated critically low quality. By using the ROBIS tool, 6 SRs were rated low-risk bias. With the PRISMA-A checklist, we found 2 out of 8 SRs were found adequately reported over 70%. With the GRADE system, no high-quality evidence was found, and only two outcomes provided moderate-quality evidence. Among the downgraded factors, the risk of bias within the original trials was ranked first, followed by publication bias, inconsistency, and imprecision. CONCLUSION: Acupuncture is a promising complementary treatment for HFS. However, due to the low quality of the SRs/MAs supporting these results, high-quality studies with rigorous study designs and larger samples are needed before widespread recommendations can be made.