Reporting Quality Assessment of Sham Acupuncture Randomized Controlled Trials for Acupuncture Intervention in Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness, yet standard treatments often have limitations, prompting interest in acupuncture as an adjuvant therapy. While acupuncture may offer neuroprotective and circulatory benefits, current research quality remains suboptimal. Existing studies are plagued by methodological flaws, including small sample sizes, inconsistent protocols, and high risks of bias, resulting in low-certainty evidence. Crucially, the adherence to international reporting standards—specifically CONSORT, STRICTA, and the recently released SHARE checklist (2023)—has not been systematically evaluated in this field. This lack of rigorous assessment obscures the true efficacy of the intervention. Consequently, there is an urgent need to re-evaluate existing randomized controlled trials against these updated standards to enhance research transparency, address methodological deficiencies, and provide reliable data for clinical practice.