Effect of dry cupping therapy and acupuncture on the pain scale in low back pain in postpartum women: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Context: Dry cupping and acupuncture are complementary treatments that can be used to decrease low back pain (LBP) in postpartum mothers. Aims: To analyze the pain intensity after each treatment measured by visual analog scale (VAS) in postpartum mothers with LBP. Methods: Articles for this systematic review and meta-analysis were retrieved from Web of Science, Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus (10/1/2013-12/31/2022), adjusted for inclusion and exclusion criteria, and filtered according to PRISMA guidelines, and the meta-analysis was using Review Manager 5.4. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale was selected to ascertain the quality of each included paper. Results: Four randomized controlled- trials (RCTs) with 157 patients were included. VAS scores from these studies showed that after acupuncture and dry cupping treatment, the VAS scores were significantly lower in LBP-postpartum mothers than in controls (SMD IV, Random 95%: 1.69 [95% I² = 83%; p = 0.00001]) and (SMD IV, Random, 95%: 2.06 [95% I² = 63 %; p = 0.0001]), respectively. The LBP among these postpartum mothers can be triggered by perinatal stress, postpartum baby blues, and other back pain-related morbidities. Conclusions: Both acupuncture and dry cupping effectively reduced LBP in postpartum mothers. However, dry cupping showed a higher impact and was arguably more beneficial due to this method's non-invasiveness. Furthermore, acupuncture and dry cupping are considered safe treatments after giving birth because they do not interfere with breast milk production.