Abstract

Therapeutic Approach of Acupuncture for Sciatica: A Brief Review

Author(s): Ching-Hsiung Liu, Fang-Pey Chen

Acupuncture has been proposed to treat various diseases including functional gastrointestinal disorder, mood disorder, and pain. Although the evidence-based clinical efficacy of acupuncture is uncertain, people are increasingly benefiting from the use of acupuncture to treat their diseases. Sciatica treatments involve nonsurgical and surgical management techniques; acupuncture, for its convenience and cheap cost, could be considered as a premedical or adjunctive therapy. Analysis of 14 studies published to treat sciatica with acupuncture revealed that meridians and acupoints chose is an essential issue to get better pain alleviating results. Sciatica through acupuncture treatments may include the use of the bladder and gall bladder meridians. However, for limited evidence of effectiveness in the relevant studies, a series of larger randomized controlled trials should be conducted on the efficacy of acupuncture in treating sciatica to provide further evidence.