Abstract

Objectives: Primary dysmenorrhea is a representative disease that causes intestinal pain, and it has long been known that acupuncture treatment is effective. In this study, a network analysis was conducted using acupuncture points reported in the existing systematic literature review, and the combination of acupuncture points used to treat primary dysmenorrhea was analyzed. Methods: Among of a total of 60 papers, excluding those that used ear acupuncture, the analysis results indicated that combinations of BL23, BL40, BL25, BL60, BL30, Ashi-points, BL26, GB34, and GV3 were used in combination. Results: Through this, it can be seen that previous studies to reveal the effectiveness of acupuncture on back pain mainly used the acupoints of the bladder meridian (BL), local acupoints group, and distal acupoints group. Conclusion: In order to reveal the correlation between acupoints and therapeutic effects through future studies and to provide guidelines on the principles of selecting and combining acupoints, it is necessary to employ a quantitative analysis method for therapeutic effects and to provide detailed reports on acupoints.