SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Pain Res.
Sec. Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Pain
This article is part of the Research TopicTherapeutic Strategies: Rehabilitation, Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Musculoskeletal DiseasesView all 12 articles
Efficacy and safety of Thumbtack Needle for neck pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1chengdu university of traditional chinese medicine,acupuncture and tuina, Chengdu, China
- 2Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China
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Background: Neck pain (NP) is a common musculoskeletal disorder that significantly affects patients' physical function and quality of life. Thumbtack needle therapy is widely used to manage NP. However, previous studies have reported inconsistent clinical outcomes. This study aimed to systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of thumbtack needle therapy for NP. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Science and Technology Journal (VIP) Database, and Wanfang Database for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on thumbtack needle therapy for NP, from inception to 24 September 2023. Outcome measures included the visual analog scale (VAS) scores, neck disability index (NDI) scores, total effective rate, and adverse events. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager 5.3. The quality of evidence was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation System (GRADE). Results: Seven RCTs involving 425 patients were included. Compared with the control group, thumbtack needle therapy significantly reduced VAS scores (MD = -1.33, 95%CI: -1.63, -1.03; Z = 8.65; P < 0.05), reduced NDI scores (MD = -5.54, 95%CI: - 9.73, -1.35; Z = 2.59; P < 0.05), and improved the total effective rate (OR = 0.27, 95%CI: 0.10, 0.70; Z = 2.67; P < 0.05). Adverse events were not reported in several studies, limiting conclusions on safety. Subgroup analysis revealed that heterogeneity may be from the variation in combination therapies and treatment course. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of the results. The overall quality of evidence ranged from very low to moderate. Conclusions: This study found that thumbtack needle therapy can effectively relieve pain and improve cervical mobility in patients with NP. The reduction in VAS scores reached the level of the minimum clinically important difference (MCID), indicating that thumbtack needle treatment for neck pain has a clinically significant impact. In the future, high-quality RCTs are needed to further validate the clinical efficacy of thumbtack needle therapy for NP.
Keywords: Thumbtack needle, Neck Pain, Meta-analysis, Systematic review, efficacy and safety
Received: 02 Oct 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 He, Lai, Chen, Liu, Wang, Jia, Liu and Cheng. 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: Jinyi He
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