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Received Mar 3, 2017; Revised Jun 11, 2017; Accepted Jun 18, 2017
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1. Introduction
Dysphagia was one of the most common sequelae after stroke. The incidence reached 81% [1]. There were many complications in dysphagia, such as cacotrophy [2], dehydration, aspiration, and pneumonia [3]. Those complications improve the morbidity, mortality, the rehabilitation, and the quality of life of the patients. So the medication and intervention time are very important for recovery. Acupuncture was an effective method and more and more welcomed and applied clinically [4]. There were many studies [5–7] about the acupuncture for treatment of dysphagia after stroke internationally, including the scalp acupuncture, nape needle, auricular needling, or combing with other methods.
Though, there were some systematic reviews focusing on the acupuncture for treatment of dysphagia in stroke. There was lack of higher quality research or the positive conclusion could not be obtained. Thus, the inclusion and exclusion criteria were formulated after integrating the previous relevant reports. And the studies using single blind method were pooled to be analysed alone.
2. Method and Data
The criterion of systematic review was published in the Cochrane Collaboration which was available on http://handbook.cochrane.org/.
2.1. Type of Studies
All articles were included that reported an RCT in patients with dysphagia after stoke. And the animal experiments were not inclusive.
2.2. Participants
All the patients should conform to the explicit clinical diagnosis criteria of stroke and dysphagia. They should meet the following diagnosis of stroke: (1) the diagnostic criterion of the Fourth National Conference on cerebrovascular diseases in 1994 or the revised diagnostic criterion in 1995 or 1996; (2) the revised “Various Types of Cerebrovascular Disease Diagnosis Points” of The Fourth National Conference on cerebrovascular diseases of Chinese Medicine Association; (3)...