Global research trends in postoperative ileus from 2011 to 2023:A scientometric study

BACKGROUND Postoperative ileus(POI)is a common complication after abdominal surgery with high morbidity,which hinders patient recovery,prolongs hospitalization,and increases healthcare costs.Therefore,POI has become a global public health challenge.POI triggering is multifactorial.Autonomic and hormonal mechanisms are generally involved in POI pathogenesis.Recent studies have shown that beta adrenergic signaling of enteric glia is a POI trigger.Currently,the status quo,trends,and frontiers of global research on POI remain unclear.AIM To explore the current status,trends,and frontiers of POI research from 2011 to the present based on bibliometric analysis.METHODS Publications published on POI research from 2011 to 2023 were retrieved on June 1,2023,from the Web of Science Core Collection.CiteSpace 6.2.R2 and VOSviewer were used to conduct bibliometric visualization.RESULTS In total,778 POI records published from 2011 to 2023 were retrieved.Over the past few decades,the annual cumulative number of related articles has linearly increased,with China and the United States of America contributing prominently.All publications were from 59 countries and territories.China and the University of Bonn were the top contributing country and institution,respectively.Neurogastroenterology&Motility was the most prolific journal.The Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery had the highest number of citations.Wehner Sven was the most productive author.Burst keywords(e.g.,colon,prolonged ileus,acupuncture,paralytic ileus,pathophysiology,rectal cancer,gastrointestinal function,risk)and a series of reference citation bursts provided evidence for the research frontiers in recent years.CONCLUSION This study demonstrates trends in the published literature on POI and provides new insights for researchers.It emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary cooperation in the development of this field.

Acupuncture and/or moxibustion for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation:quality assessment of systematic reviews

Objective:In the current systematic review on acupuncture and/or moxibustion for lumbar disc herniation(LDH),we evaluated the methodology and quality of evidence and reports to provide necessary information for accurate clinical decision-making regarding acupuncture and/or moxibustion for LDH.Methods:From databases such as CBM(Chinese biomedical literature database),VIP(China science and technology journal database),CNKI(China national knowledge infrastructure),WF(Wanfang database),Web of Science,Embase,Medline,and Cochrane Library,systematic reviews on acupuncture and/or moxibustion for LDH were retrieved,and the methodological quality of the literature was evaluated according to the assessment of multiple systematic reviews(AMSTAR)list.Furthermore,the grading of recommendations assessment,development and evaluation(GRADE)system was used to grade the quality of evidence and the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses(PRISMA)statement to evaluate the quality of the report.Results:A total of 18 systematic reviews were included,and the conclusion is that acupuncture and/or moxibustion have some advantages in terms of efficacy and safety with regard to LDH treatment.According to the AMSTAR score,there were 4 high-quality studies,13 moderate-quality studies,and 1 low-quality study.GRADE showed that quality of evidence such as total effective rate of LDH and VAS was low and that of other forms of evidence was lower.The PRISMA statement showed that 8 articles were in line with 20 or more of the 27 items,and 10 articles were in line with 10-19 of the 27 items.Conclusion:At present,acupuncture and/or moxibustion for LDH has a good curative effect.More importantly,its methodological quality was of moderate level and the report quality was generally good and relatively complete.However,the poor quality of the original research results was reflected in the quality of evidence.More studies are needed to make sure whether acupuncture is more effective than other treatment methods.

Acupuncture therapies in combination with conservative treatments for postoperative ileus:a systematic review and network meta-analysis

Background:Although acupuncture therapies have been widely used in combination with conservative treatments(CT)for postoperative ileus(POI),evidence of their safety and efficacy remains scarce.To evaluate and rank the efficacy of different acupuncture therapies combined with CT for POI.Methods:A comprehensive search was carried out in several databases(Embase,PubMed,Cochrane Library,Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure,Wanfang Data,VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database and China Biology Medicine disc)for relevant randomized controlled trials(RCTs)investigating different acupuncture therapies for POI from inception to February 17,2023.The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to determine the risks of bias of the included RCTs.The primary outcomes included the time to first defecation,time to first flatus,and time to first bowel movement;and the secondary outcome was the response rate.Pairwise meta-analysis was performed by Review Manager 5.3 software,and network meta-analysis was carried out by Stata v.15.0 software.The cumulative ranking curve was obtained with Stata v.15.0 and was utilized to rank the included treatments.Results:29 studies with 2,600 participants were included in this systematic review.This meta-analysis demonstrated that all acupuncture therapies combined with CT were superior to conservative treatments alone in time to first defecation,time to first flatus,time to first bowel movement,and response rate.Among 10 evaluated methods,auricular needle with CT was the most effective treatment to reduce the time to first defecation.Furthermore,moxibustion with CT was the most effective in reducing the time to first flatus,and warm needling with CT most markedly reduced the time to first bowel movement among 9 interventions.Moreover,manual acupuncture with CT showed the largest improvement in response rate.Conclusion:This meta-analysis revealed that all acupuncture therapies are effective and safe for POI,with warm needling+CT being the most effective way to relieve symptoms.These results indicated that acupuncture therapies combined with CT should be considered for POI patients.However,most of the included trials were ranked as moderate quality,and further large-scale,high-quality RCTs are required to confirm the optimal interventions for POI patients.

Efficacy and safety of acupuncture for polycystic ovary syndrome:An overview of systematic reviews

Background:Polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS)is the primary cause of anovulatory infertility,bringing serious harm to women’s physical and mental health.Acupuncture may be an effective treatment for PCOS.However,systematic reviews(SRs)on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for PCOS have reported inconsistent results,and the quality of these studies has not been adequately assessed.Objective:To summarize and evaluate the current evidence on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for PCOS,as well as to assess the quality and risks of bias of the available SRs.Search strategy:Nine electronic databases(Cochrane Library,MEDLINE,Embase,PsycINFO,CINAHL,Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure,Wanfang Data,Chongqing VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database,and China Biology Medicine disc)were searched from their establishment to July 27,2022.Based on the principle of combining subject words with text words,the search strategy was constructed around search terms for“acupuncture,”“polycystic ovary syndrome,”and“systematic review.”Inclusion criteria:SRs of randomized controlled trials that explored the efficacy and(or)safety of acupuncture for treating patients with PCOS were included.Data extraction and analysis:Two authors independently extracted study data according to a predesigned form.Tools for evaluating the methodological quality,risk of bias,reporting quality,and confidence in study outcomes,including A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2(AMSTAR 2),Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews(ROBIS),Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Metaanalyses for Acupuncture(PRISMA-A),and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment,Development and Evaluation(GRADE),were used to score the included SRs.Results:A total of 885 studies were retrieved,and 11 eligible SRs were finally included in this review.The methodological quality of 2 SRs(18.18%)was low,while the other 9 SRs(81.82%)were scored as extremely low.Four SRs(36.36%)were considered to be of low risk of bias.As for reporting quality,the reporting completeness of 9 SRs(81.82%)was more than 70%.Concerning the confidence in study results,2study results were considered to have a high quality of evidence(3.13%),14(21.88%)a“moderate”quality,28(43.75%)a“low”quality,and 20(31.24%)considered a“very low”quality.Descriptive analyses suggested that combining acupuncture with other medicines can effectively improve the clinical pregnancy rate(CPR)and ovulation rate,and reduce luteinizing hormone/follicle-stimulating hormone ratio,homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance,and body mass index(BMI).When compared with medicine alone,acupuncture alone also can improve CPR.Further,when compared with no intervention,acupuncture had a better effect in promoting the recovery of menstrual cycle and reducing BMI.Acupuncture was reported to cause no adverse events or some adverse events without serious harm.Conclusion:The efficacy and safety of acupuncture for PCOS remains uncertain due to the limitations and inconsistencies of current evidence.More high-quality studies are needed to support the use of acupuncture in PCOS.