OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy for children with cerebral palsy. DATA SOURCES: We conducted electronic searches of PubMed (1950 to 2017), Embase (1974 to 2017), ScienceDirect (1986 to 2017), Academic Source Premier (1887 to 2017), the Cochrane Library (issue 4, April 2017), Science Citation Index Expanded (1900 to 2017), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (1915 to 2017), China Biological Medicine (1990 to 2017-04), Wanfang (1980 to 2017), VIP (1989 to 2017), and Chinese Science Citation Database (1989 to 2017). DATA SELECTION: We included randomized controlled trials that aimed to compare the effect of acupuncture plus rehabilitation training versus rehabilitation training alone. Data about functional motor abilities, daily activity/social participation, effective rate, intellectual development, and adverse effects were included. We used Revman 5.2 software for statistical analysis. OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcomes included functional motor abilities, daily activity, and effective rate. The secondary outcomes included intellectual development and adverse effects. RESULTS: Twenty-one studies with a total of 1718 participants met the inclusion criteria. The effect size of gross motor function (SMD 0.64, 95% CI 0.52 to 0.76, p < 0.00001; I2 = 0%, p = 0.69; in 13 studies with 1144 patients) and the total effective rate (RR 1.28, 95% CI 1.20 to 1.37, p < 0.00001; I2 = 18%, p = 0.27; in 12 studies with 1106 patients) suggested that acupuncture plus rehabilitation produced a significant improvement in gross motor function and a high total effective rate. The pooled fine motor function (SMD 3.48, 95% CI 2.62 to 4.34, p < 0.00001; I2 = 64%, p = 0.10; in 2 studies with 193 patients), modified Ashworth scale scores (SMD -0.31, 95% CI -0.52 to -0.11, p = 0.003; I2 = 74%, p = 0.004; in 5 studies with 363 patients) and activities of daily living (SMD 1.45, 95% CI 1.20 to 1.71, p < 0.00001; I2 = 78%, p = 0.004; in 4 studies with 313 patients) also indicated improvements in children with cerebral palsy. Publication bias was not observed. Only mild adverse events related to acupuncture were reported. CONCLUSION: Acupuncture plus rehabilitation training improved gross motor function, reduced muscle spasms, and enhanced daily life activities in children with cerebral palsy. However, this conclusion should be interpreted with caution due to the small number of randomized controlled trials available and the small sample sizes. More high-quality and large-scale studies are needed.

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