Background: Bee venom acupuncture (BVA) is a type of acupuncture of injecting bee venom or a bee sting at a certain point. Even though evidence of its benefits are accumulating, evidence of its harms are scarce. This systematic review aimed to assess ...
Background: Bee venom acupuncture (BVA) is a type of acupuncture of injecting bee venom or a bee sting at a certain point. Even though evidence of its benefits are accumulating, evidence of its harms are scarce. This systematic review aimed to assess the evidence regarding adverse events of BVA reported in prior clinical researches.
Methods: A systematic search for adverse events of BVA in Pubmed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, NDSL, KoreaMed, KISS, RISS, KISTI, KMbase was performed. Characteristics and occurrence rates of adverse events, drop-out rates due to adverse events following BVA in all types of clinical trials eligible were assessed.
Results: A total of 43 studies reported adverse events following BVA. In studies of randomized controlled trials, adverse events of pruritus, localized swelling, and erythema appeared to occur significantly more in the BVA group compared to the control group. Drop-outs due to adverse events occurred significantly more in the BVA group compared to the overall control groups.
Conclusion: It appears that adverse events occur more frequently after BVA compared to controls. However evidence regarding the reporting of adverse events of BVA is not sufficient for assessing precise occurrence rates or drop-out rates. Thus no concrete conclusions can be stated with the current evidence. More research with better methodological quality is needed.