Efficacy of Auricular Acupressure in Prevention and Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Patients with Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: More than 40% of patients with cancer have reported that chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) remained the most debilitating side effects of treatment even in the era of new antiemetics.

Objective: The purpose of this review was to systematically evaluate the clinical effect of auricular acupressure (AA) in prevention and treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.

Methods: The following databases were searched: PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, the Web of Science, Chinese Biological Medicine (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, and VIP (from database inception to April 2020). Eligible randomized controlled trials of auricular acupressure in treating CINV were collected, including crossover randomized design study. The meta-analysis was carried out by RevMan software (5.3).

Results: Totally 19 RCTs with 1449 patients met the inclusion criteria. Compared with control groups, the relief efficiency of overall CINV was enhanced by AA combined with antiemetics (RR = 1.31, CI 1.22 to 1.41,  ≤ 0.001). Although the therapeutic effect on acute nausea and vomiting was not obvious, AA still played an important role in reducing delayed nausea and vomiting (delayed nausea frequency: RR = 0.68, CI -1.01 to -1.35,  ≤ 0.001; delayed vomiting frequency: RR = 0.91, CI -1.22 to -0.61,  ≤ 0.001). The likelihood of adverse reactions related to antiemetics was reduced by AA combined with antiemetics (RR = 0.62, CI 0.53 to 0.74,  ≤ 0.001). Statistically significant association was found between AA and incidence of constipation, diarrhea, and tiredness, while there was no statistically significant association between AA and abdominal distension or headache.

Conclusion: Auricular acupressure supplementation benefited delayed chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting as well as constipation, diarrhea, and tiredness. AA alone or AA supplementation has little effect on acute nausea and acute vomiting. There is no conclusion on whether AA alone is superior to antiemetics in the management of delayed CINV. Further studies are needed to confirm the efficacy of auricular acupressure alone in delayed CINV and anticipatory CINV. The results of this review provided the basis for further research with more rigorous study designs, adequate sample sizes, and standardized implementation to confirm the efficacy of auricular acupressure.