Objective To evaluate the effect and safety of acupuncture treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS)by using systematic review in view of evidence-based medicine(EBM).Methods Original articles about acupuncture treatment of PCOS published from the database-established year to November of 2013were searched from the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database(CNKI)

Chongqing VIP Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database(VIP)

Chinese Biomedical Library(CBM)

Wanfang Data

PubMed

and the Cochrane Library and the associated references-indicated papers by using keywords of polycystic ovary syndrome

randomization

acupoint

acupuncture

acupuncture plus moxibustion

acupuncture plus acupoint-embedment of catgut

and acupuncture plus otopoint application.Those articles about treatment of PCOS with simple abdominal acupuncture

simple acupoint-embedment of catgut

simple otopoint-pellet-pressure

and simple moxibustion treatment

and simple abstracts were excluded.If the articles re-published in both Chinese and English and in academic conferences and journals

one of them with higher quality was included.Two independent reviewers extracted data from located articles in a pre-defined structured way

and the Meta-analysis was conducted using software RevMan 5.2

otherwise using the qualitative analysis.Results A total of 31articles(28in Chinese

3in English)containing 2 321cases of PCOS patients met the included criteria.Meta-analysis showed that the clinical efficacy of simple acupuncture was the same as that of western medicine

and the efficacy of acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine interventions was obviously higher than that of western medicine(P<0.05).In addition

simple acupuncture intervention and acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicines or with moxibustion treatment have advantages in reducing serum luteinizing hormone/follicle-stimulating hormone(LH/FSH)

insulin resistance(IR)

testosterone(T)

and body mass index(BMI).However

the quality of the collected articles is generally lower due to unclear bias

no sample quantity estimation

incorrect randomization methods

no follow-up survey

etc.Conclusion Acupuncture therapy may be effective for PCOS

but needs to be confirmed further by larger sample randomized controlled trials.