Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation for immunologic function after surgery in patients with gastrointestinal tumor: a meta-analysis

There is no consensus on whether transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation can be used to improve the immune function of postoperative patients with gastrointestinal tumors. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the effects of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) on postoperative immune function of patients with gastrointestinal tumor and provide evidence-based basis for clinical evaluation. The method used in this study is to systematically searched English databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), Excerpta Medica Database (EMbase), Web of Science and Chinese databases including Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, VIP database and China Biomedical Literature Database (SinoMed). Relevant registration platform named Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) was also searched. Manual search and document tracking are also performed. The aforementioned databases were retrieved for transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation for immunologic function after surgery in patients with gastrointestinal tumor randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from inception to 1 November 2022. Meta-analysis was conducted by RevMan5.4.1 software, and the evidence quality was evaluated using Cochrane risk bias evaluation form. In this study, a total of 18 trials with 1618 participants were analyzed. Only two studies were shown to be low risk. The results showed that there were significant differences in cellular immune and inflammatory factors and receptors, such as CD3+, CD4+, CD4+/CD8+, NK, IL-6, TNF-α, sIL-2 R, IL-2 and CRP, had significant effects (P < 0.05) after TEAS intervention on gastrointestinal tumor; however, CD8+ (P = 0.07) and IL-10 (P = 0.26) did not. Judging from the current evidence, TEAS was found to improve the immune function of patients with gastrointestinal tumors after surgery and reduce the level of inflammatory response, worthy of clinical promotion and use.