Electroacupuncture for treatment of cervicogenic headache: A meta-analysis

Objective: Cervicogenic headache is a common aliment affecting clinically, but many current treatments failed to aid in long-term pain relief for these patients. Pharmacological agents such as analgesics and steroid base injections are among a few of current treatments utilized in clinical, however, their efficacy remains controversial, which the use of non-pharmacological based methods can be utilized as a treatment option. Therefore, we investigated the curative effect of electroacupuncture in treating cervicogenic headache using meta-analysis from 21 studies, and 6 studies were selected as the final articles. Methods: We searched MedLine, Ovid, Embase, and Cochrane Library electronic databases, Wanfang and Weipu Chinese electronic databases, and the Chinese Biomedical Retrieval System using the key words of “electroacupuncture”, “acupuncture” and “cervicogenic headache” for randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials or controlled clinical trials. Results: Six studies including 609 patients met the inclusion criteria, and these studies compared curative effect of electroacupuncture with other methods. Two trials reported greater overall effectiveness rate of electroacupuncture than the oral medicine subgroup (OR 8.16, 95% CI 3.43-19.41; P<0.00001), but none of the others suggested the superiority of electroacupuncture versus anyother subgroup by a random model. A meta-analysis of all trials compared electroacupuncture with other treatments did not show significant difference (OR 2.17, 95% CI 0.74 to 6.36; P=0.16) with a random model. No obvious publication bias concerning the effectiveness rate was identified with Begg’s test. Conclusions: Electroacupuncture shows higher effectiveness rate for cervicogenic headache treatment compared to oral treatment adopted in the included trials, but no advantage in overall effectiveness rate was observed, thus, it appears that electroacupuncture may not be a superior treatment for cervicogenic headache. However, the quality of the trials included was insufficient to reach any firm conclusion regarding the curative effect of electroacupuncture, so higher quality studies are required in the future.