Clinical efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine therapy for female stress urinary incontinence: a meta-analysis.

Only 8 randomized trials were pooled, and some interventions had small sample sizes, so statistical precision is limited. No included study described blinding, and only one described allocation concealment, so performance and selection bias cannot be ruled out. The TCM interventions varied across studies, and there were no uniform requirements for age, race, dose, acupoint selection, or intervention duration, so the results may not apply to any one TCM protocol. The 1-h pad test and maximum urethral closure pressure analyses showed heterogeneity, and the pad-test result required excluding the study that drove heterogeneity. Safety information was sparse; the paper reports only minor adverse effects and calls for more high-quality safety data. No patient or public involvement was reported.

Do not conclude that TCM alone is effective or that it replaces pelvic floor muscle training. Every experimental group received pelvic floor muscle training plus TCM therapy, and the included studies used different TCM modalities, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated.