Raynaud’s Disease and Multiple Clinical Challenges: A Concise Review of Literature with a Focus on Medical Acupuncture

This concise review critically describes several perspectives of Raynaud’s diseases with a focus on
medical acupuncture. Electronic searches of relevant data prior to 2020 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 medical
acupuncture were retained for this review. Raynaud’s disease classified into primary and secondary is
poorly understood phenomenon, lacks standard care and, hence, needs patient-centered holistic
modalities. 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. Both Raynaud's disease phenomena are complex conditions;
need individualized treatment approach including surgical in difficult-to-treat cases and further rigor
studies are required to unravel their pathophysiology pathways and standardized interventions across
the world.