SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Neurotechnology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1669551
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Peripheral Facial Palsy: From Pathophysiology to Rehabilitation/RecoveryView all articles
The efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment for peripheral facial paralysis: an overview of systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China
- 2The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China
- 3Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China
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Background: Many studies have investigated the efficacy and safety of acupuncture in the treatment of peripheral facial palsy(PFP), but the results have been inconsistent. This study aimed to evaluate systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) of the treatment of PFP by integrating acupuncture, providing a basis for clinical treatment. Methods: We searched Wanfang, VIP, CNKI, CBM, Web of Science, PubMed, and Cochrane Library databases for SRs and MAs related to acupuncture treatment for PFP, from the establishment of the databases to May 1, 2025. We evaluated the methodology, reporting quality, and evidence quality of the included studies using the AMSTAR2, PRISMA, and GRADE tools. Results: This study included a total of 17 SRs and MAs. The AMSTAR2 assessment results showed that three studies were rated as having low methodological quality, while 14 studies were considered to have very low methodological quality. The PRISMA results indicated that two studies were of high quality, nine were of moderate quality, and six were of low quality. GRADE results indicated that only two itemsstudies provided moderate-quality evidence, 22 itemsstudies provided low-quality evidence, and 13 itemsstudies provided very low-quality evidence. Acupuncture can improve the clinical efficacy of PFP, reduce recovery time, and has few adverse reactions. Conclusion: Acupuncture is effective in treating PFP, but methodological shortcomings in existing studies have resulted in limited evidence. In the future, it is necessary to follow the principles of evidence-based medicine to improve the quality of relevant RCTs and SRs and MAs studies and enhance the credibility of the evidence.
Keywords: Systematic review, Acupuncture, Peripheral facial paralysis, Overview, Meta-analysis
Received: 20 Jul 2025; Accepted: 17 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 huang, Zhang, Zha, wang, Li, Ye, liu, wang and YANG. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: JUN YANG, yangjunacup@126.com
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