METHODOLOGICAL EVALUATION ON CLINICAL RESEARCH LITERATURE OF ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENT OF FACIAL PARALYS

Objective: To try to give an objective evaluation on the clinical research situation about acupuncturetreatment of facial paralysis in the past 50 years and try to provide a possible evidence for clinical practice. Methods:All papers are searched and assessed according to the international standards and clinical epidemiology. Results:There is no systematic review (SR) on acupuncture treatment of facial palsy in a total of 1021 articles enlisted in thepresent paper. Comparing with the quantity of the descriptive studies and expert opinions (constituting 84.84% ), thatof the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and clinical controlled trials (CCTs) is smaller (constituting 15. 16%), be-sides, the quality of RCTs and CCTs is unsatisfactory. Conclusion: At present, the quantity and quality of studies withRCTs about acupuncture treatment of facial paralysis can't meet the need of clinical practice, and in order to improvethe therapeutic effect, a higher quality of RCTs and SR is required.