Survey on acupuncture treatment of neurogenic dysphagia and analysis of regularity of acupoint selection

Objective: To understand the general situation of clinical study on acupuncture for neurogenic dysphagia and the regularity of acupoint selection by literature analysis. Methods: By searching the relevant Chinese and English literature on acupuncture treatment of neurogenic dysphagia from 1999 to 2014 in China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database and Ovid Gateway, the data of the recruited literature, including average age of the patients, acupoint selection, course, therapeutic effects and follow-up information, were input into the data table of Microsoft Excel 2010. Results: Totally, 51 articles were input, involving 4 606 patients. The average course of acupuncture treatment for neurogenic dysphagia was 24.8 d. The average retaining time of the needles was 26.2 min. The average total effective rate was 91.2%. Lianquan (CV 23), Fengchi (GB 20), Fengfu (GV 16) and Yifeng (TE 17) were the most commonly used acupoints from the regular meridians, accounting for 63.4% of the totally-used acupoints. Jinjin (EX-HN 12) and Yuye (EX-HN 13) were the most commonly used acupoints from the extraordinary meridians, accounting for 45.9% of the totally-used extraordinary acupoints. The frequently-used meridians in turns were the Conception Vessel, Gallbladder Meridian of Foot Shaoyang and Stomach Meridian of Foot Yangming, accounting for 63.3% of the involved meridians. Conclusion: The therapeutic effect of acupuncture treatment for neurogenic dysphagia was satisfactory. The acupoints were Lianquan (CV 23), Fengchi (GB 20) and Fengfu (GV 16) in predominance, and they were mostly selected from the Conception Vessel, Gallbladder Meridian and Stomach Meridian those are in close relationship with the throat and neck. Keywords: Acupuncture Therapy; Dysphagia; Literature; Point Selection © 2015, Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.