Acupuncture for Bell's palsy.

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to examine the efficacy of acupuncture in hastening recovery and reducing long-term morbidity from Bell's palsy.

METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Neuromuscular Disease Group Trials Register, MEDLINE (January 1966-April 2006), EMBASE (January 1980-April 2006), LILACS (January 1982-April 2006), and the Chinese Biomedical Retrieval System (January 1978-April 2006) for randomized controlled trials using "Bell's palsy" and its synonyms, "idiopathic facial paralysis" or "facial palsy" as well as search terms including "acupuncture." Chinese journals in which we thought we might find randomized controlled trials or controlled clinical trials relevant to our study were hand searched. We reviewed the bibliographies of the randomized trials and contacted the authors and known experts in the field to identify additional published or unpublished data. We included all randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials involving acupuncture in the treatment of Bell's palsy, irrespective of any language restrictions. Two review authors identified potential articles from the literature search and extracted data independently using a data extraction form. The assessment of methodological quality included allocation concealment, patient blinding, differences at baseline of the experimental groups, and completeness of follow-up. Two (2) review authors assessed quality independently. All disagreements were resolved by discussion between the review authors.

RESULTS: Six (6) studies including a total of 537 participants met the inclusion criteria. Five (5) of them used acupuncture while another one used acupuncture combined with drugs. No trials reported on the outcomes specified for this review. Harmful side-effects were not reported in any of the trials. Flaws in study design or reporting (particularly uncertain allocation concealment and substantial loss to follow-up) and clinical differences between trials prevented conclusions about the efficacy of acupuncture.

CONCLUSIONS: The quality of the included trials was inadequate to allow any conclusion about the efficacy of acupuncture. More research with high-quality trials is needed.