Haiping Li,1,* Xuesong Wang,1,* Yu Wang,1 Yuanbo Gao,1 Xiaojun Zheng,1 Xifen Zhang,1 Xuxin Li,1 Xihui Zheng,1 Xisheng Fan,1,2 Guang Zuo,1 Yanfen She1,2

1College of Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Hebei International Joint Research Center for Dominant Diseases in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, People’s Republic of China

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Correspondence: Guang Zuo; Yanfen She, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, No. 3 Xingyuan Road, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province, 050200, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; [email protected]

xView the original paper by Dr Li and colleagues

This is in response to the Letter to the Editor

We would like to express our gratitude to you for taking the time to provide a response to Zeng’s feedback on our article, “Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Endometriosis: A Network Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials”. The insights they have shared are greatly appreciated and will contribute to the enhancement of our current research topic.

Firstly, we would like to thank for their suggestions. Clinical staging is a key variable in the assessment of treatment efficacy. We further suggest that future clinical trials should refer to the endometriosis staging criteria developed by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM),1 where appropriate, to add components related to disease staging and to classify clinicopathological types according to the guidelines.2

Secondly, we considered performing subgroup analyses during our analysis. However, the diversity of clinical analysis reports within the original literature made subgroup analysis infeasible. We agree that a stratified analysis based on acupuncture point selection could provide valuable insights into the efficacy of different acupuncture points for endometriosis and improve the quality of the manuscript. We will continue to monitor this area and conduct an updated network meta-analysis when the original literature is sufficient and meets the criteria for analysis.

Furthermore, we extend our sincerest apologies for the error in Table 2.

We once again appreciate your interest in our research and value your valuable feedback.

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this communication.

1. Society for reproductive medicine A. Revised American society for reproductive medicine classification of endometriosis: 1996. Fertil Steril. 1997;67(5):817–821. doi:10.1016/s0015-0282(97)81391-x

2. Chinese Obstetricians And Gynecologists Association. Guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis. Third edition. Chin J Obstet Gynecol.2021;56(12):13. doi:10.3760/cma.j.cn112141-20211018-00603

© 2024 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.