Raynaud’s Disease and Clinical Challenges: A Minireview of Literature with a Spotlight on Acupuncture

Background: Primary Raynaud’s disease preferentially afflicts women with 5% prevalence rate reported in general population, manifests triphasic color phenomenon along with paresthesia involving distal digits and toes and triggered by severe cold and stress.

Objective: This review critically describes several perspectives of Raynaud’s diseases with a focus on medical acupuncture.

Methods: Electronic searches of relevant data prior to 2019 published in PubMed, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect databases were made using the Boolean operators and keywords. Finally, 32 articles that addressed specifically Raynaud’s disease and acupuncture were retained for this minireview.

Results: Raynaud’s disease classified into primary and secondary is poorly understood phenomenon, lacks standard care and, hence, needs patient-centered holistic approach. Evidently, medical acupuncture with safe clinical profile has been effectively used as an alternative therapy in Raynaud’s disease. Outcome results with the use of conservative approaches, modern therapies, behavioral interventions and medical acupuncture vary considerably across the board and primary RD carries better prognosis than secondary RD.

Conclusion: Both Raynaud's disease phenomena are complex conditions; need individualized treatment approach including surgical in refractory cases and further rigor studies to unravel their pathophysiology pathways and standardized interventions.