Jiang H, et al. – The intent of this paper was to condense and appraise the evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture in treating dry eye syndrome (DES), based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta–Analyses (PRISMA) statement and the Cochrane Collaboration recommendations. It was determined that the low methodological quality of the trials did not recommend drawing firm conclusions on the value of acupuncture therapy for DES. Acupuncture therapy could exhibit certain effects on the tear film break–up time (BUT) and Schirmer’s test, but not on the subjective symptoms. Advanced RCTs were required to clarify if acupuncture was effective in treating DES.

Methods

• Data was extracted from the PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ClinicalTrials.gov and Embase was made from their inception to August 2016, as well as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean databases.
• 2 reviewers independently selected RCTs and examined the methodological quality.
• Meta-analysis and the level of evidence were processed by RevMan 5.3 and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.

Results

• 8 trials were subjected to systematic review.
• Low methodological quality was found.
• The 3-10 weeks follow-up illustrated that acupuncture improved the tear film break-up time (BUT) (MD=1.33, 95% CI=1.01-1.66, 619 participants).
• The mean variation of Schirmer’s test was 1.73 mm (95%CI=1.28-2.18, 618 participants) between the acupuncture group and the control group.
• No marked variations were observed in the subjective variables.