Assessment of methodological quality of systematic reviews of acupuncture for chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain symptom: an overview of systematic review

Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) affects approximately 2.2% to 13.8% of men of all ages in worldwide. Recently, many systematic reviews (SRs) that assess the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for treating CP/CPPS arise, but the methodological quality of existing SRs is unclear. We conducted this overview using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) to assess the methodological quality of SRs of acupuncture for CP/CPPS. The methodological quality of SRs of acupuncture for treating CP/CPPS is satisfactory, especially for the latest SRs that published in English. The results of assessment indicate that the following three respects should be attached importance in the future: the study protocol should be designed previously and provided grey literature such as dissertation and conference paper, and a list of excluded studies should be listed as an attachment. In addition, we also summarized the evidence on acupuncture for CP/CPPS. Regarding the outcomes of included SRs, no significant conflicting has been observed in terms of the treatment of reliving CP/CPPS. Acupuncture could be considered as an optional treatment for reliving the symptoms for patients with CP/CPPS, especially for patient who resists to medicine such as antibiotics and α-blockers.