Meta-analysis and sequential analysis of acupuncture compared to carbamazepine in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia

Table 2 Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation quality grading for acupuncture treatment of trigeminal neuralgia

Intervention measures	RCT (number of patients)	Effect size (95%CI)	Factors for evaluating evidence quality					Evidence quality
			Limitations	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Imprecision	Publication bias
Acupuncture vs carbamazepine	16 (1231)	SMD 1.47 (0.99 to 1.95)	-11	-12	0	0	-13	Extremely low

¹Most of the information comes from moderate bias risk randomized controlled trial;

²P value of heterogeneity test is small, the I² value is large, and there is less overlap in the size, direction, and confidence interval of the effect magnitude;

³Egger’s test suggests a significant publication bias. RCT: Randomized controlled trial; SMD: Standardized mean difference.