Table 2.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Scoping Review Studies
Inclusion criteria
Language: English
Article type: Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials, pilot studies
Subject: Dry needling or acupuncture for sciatica or neuropathic pain related to radiculopathy of lumbar region due to sciatic nerve compression
Exclusion criteria
Language: Non-English language
Article type: Case series, case study, cohort study, study protocol, narrative review, articles not in English
Subject: Mechanisms studies or experimental animal studies, studies on low back pain or spinal pain without specifying patients with nerve root compression and symptoms consistent with sciatica. Studies on patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. Studies on patients with neuropathic pain not of spinal or nerve root origin to include; chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, cancer related neuropathic pain, post herpetic neuralgia, piriformis syndrome, diabetic neuropathy. Studies using warming acupuncture or injectates with the needling procedures
Mechanisms Studies
Inclusion Criteria
Language: English
Article type: Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomized controlled trials or pilot studies, narrative reviews, experimental in vivo animal studies, clinical studies, laboratory studies, modeling and simulation studies.
Subject: Physiological mechanisms studies (human and animal subjects) on the use of dry needling, manual acupuncture or electroacupuncture for neuropathic pain related to sciatic nerve injury/compression models. Mechanistic studies on animal models under normal, inflammatory and/or neuropathic pain conditions
Exclusion criteria
Language: Non-English language
Article type: Studies not relevant to the neurophysiological or mechanical effects of needling interventions. Studies not relevant to pathophysiological mechanisms of sciatica, nerve injury or neuropathic pain.