Jun Ba, Yan Wu, Yanhong Li, Ding Xu, Wei Zhu, and Jing Yu.
Medical Acupuncture. October 2013, 25(5): 317-327. doi:10.1089/acu.2013.0968.

ABSTRACT
Objective: The objective of this review was to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment option for dry eye.

Methods: The research team conducted a meta-analysis of all randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that examined the effectiveness of acupuncture for dry eye, including Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) and non-Sjögren’s syndrome (non-SS). PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), the Web of Science, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) Database, the Weipu Database (VIP), and the WanFang Database were searched, using both electronic and manual methods to identify studies.

Results: Eleven RCTs met the inclusion criteria, comprising 700 subjects. The total results of the meta-analysis showed significant differences in tear break-up time, Schirmer’s test, response rate, and corneal fluorescein staining. The results demonstrated that acupuncture had a superior effect on dry eye, compared with artificial tears (AT). Furthermore, significant differences were shown between the acupuncture group and the AT group over treatment periods from 3 weeks to 3 months. Sustained, while nonconsistent, improvement following acupuncture was observed during the follow-up periods.

Conclusions: This updated meta-analysis suggests that, compared with AT, acupuncture has a superior therapeutic effect on both SS syndrome and non-SS. Meanwhile, acupuncture treatment resulted in sustained improvement from 3 weeks to 3 months.

Journal Abstract:  http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acu.2013.0968