Combined traditional Chinese medicine therapy for the treatment of infertility with polycystic ovary syndrome: A network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Medicine (Baltimore)
; 103(28): e38912, 2024 Jul 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38996123
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) infertility has attracted great attention from researchers due to its high incidence. Numerous studies have shown that Chinese medicine is effective in treating this disease, but there is a wide variety of Chinese medicine therapies available, and there is a lack of comparative evaluation of the efficacy of various Chinese medicine combination therapies in the clinic, which requires further in-depth exploration. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of a combined traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy for the treatment of infertility with PCOS using network meta-analysis (NMA).METHODS:
In PubMed, web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, China Knowledge Network, Wanfang Data, VIP Database, China Biomedical Literature Database (SinoMed) databases, searchs were conducted for information about the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of combined TCM therapy for the treatment of infertility with PCOS. Quality evaluation was performed using the Cochrane 5.3 risk of bias assessment tool, and NMA using Stata 16.0.RESULTS:
This study comprised 28 RCTs using 8 combined TCM therapies in total. The results of the NMA showed that moxibustionâ +â herbal, fire acupunctureâ +â herbal, acupunctureâ +â herbal, electroacupunctureâ +â herbal, and acupoint applicationâ +â herbal improved the clinical pregnancy rate better than acupuncture, herbal, and western medicines monotherapy (Pâ <â .05). Additionally, ear point pressureâ +â herbal enemaâ +â herbal, acupuncture and moxibustionâ +â herbal, fire acupunctureâ +â herbal, and acupunctureâ +â herbal improved the ovulation rate better than acupuncture, herbal, and western medicines monotherapy (Pâ <â .05). Moxibustionâ +â herbal, fire acupunctureâ +â herbal, and acupunctureâ +â herbal are the 3 most effective therapies for improving the clinical pregnancy rate. Fire acupunctureâ +â herbal, acupunctureâ +â herbal, and ear point pressureâ +â herbal enemaâ +â herbal are the 3 most effective therapies for improving the ovulation rate.CONCLUSION:
The combined TCM therapy demonstrated better efficacy for the treatment of infertility with PCOS compared to acupuncture, herbal, and western medicines monotherapy. However, the optimal treatment therapy varied depending on the outcome indicators. Further large sample, high-quality, and standardized RCTs are needed to verify these findings.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
/
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
/
Infertility, Female
/
Medicine, Chinese Traditional
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
Language:
En
Journal:
Medicine (Baltimore)
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
China
Country of publication:
United States