Through collecting the existing clinical evidences on acupuncture and moxibustion for urticaria

the distribution of evidence in this field was mapped. A systematic search of Chinese and English literature was conducted in CNKI

Wanfang

VIP

SinoMed

PubMed

EMbase

and Cochrane Library for treatment of urticaria with acupuncture and moxibustion

published up to December 31

2023 since inception of each database. The research status in this field was summarized using an evidence mapping approach

and methodological quality was assessed. A total of 323 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 22 systematic reviews were included. The number of studies on acupuncture and moxibustion for urticaria has been increasing

with a significant rise in recent years. In most RCTs

the study scale was small

and the subjects focused on chronic spontaneous urticaria in adolescents and middle-aged adults

aged 14 to 60 years. Regarding the intervention measures

the single therapy of acupuncture and moxibustion was predominant such as acupoint injection

acupoint embedding thread

and filiform needling. In acupuncture with filiform needles

the commonly used acupoints were Quchi (LI11)

Xuehai (SP10)

Sanyinjiao (SP6)

Zusanli (ST36) and Hegu (LI4). The main outcome measures referred to effectiveness rate

score of disease severity

recurrence rate

laboratory indexes

and score of quality of life; and the short-term effect was evaluated specifically. The overall methodological quality of the included studies was relatively low. It is suggested that the future research should focus on large-scale

multi-center

high-quality clinical trials

optimize the protocols for acupuncture and moxibustion intervention

standardize the outcomes

and draw the attention to the evaluation of long-term efficacy

so as to provide clinical evidences of high certainty for urticaria treated with acupuncture and moxibustion.