Rectal prolapse is the protrusion of the rectal wall, in part or in full thickness, out through the anus, as a 2025 review of rectal prolapse in children by Moon and colleagues defines it. Full-thickness prolapse in adults most often affects older people, as a 2015 Cochrane review of its surgery notes. Cochrane has not published a review of acupuncture for rectal prolapse, no systematic review of acupuncture or moxibustion for it was found in PubMed or Europe PMC by October 2026, and ClinicalTrials.gov listed no registered trial. What the indexed literature holds is four short Chinese reports of treated cases, without control groups in their records, and randomised trials of acupuncture after a haemorrhoid operation whose name includes the word prolapse.

How rectal prolapse is treated

The Cochrane review by Tou and colleagues, the third update of a review first published in 2000, included 15 randomised trials with 1,007 adults, all comparing one operation with another. Most questions rested on one or two small trials, and the authors wrote that it was impossible to identify or refute clinically important differences between the operations.

In children, rectal prolapse is most common between infancy and 4 years of age, and Moon’s review reports that most children under 4 have self-limiting disease with appropriate medical management; the most common underlying cause it names is chronic constipation with stool withholding. After an adequate trial of medical management, the next step it describes is most often sclerotherapy, an injection of a sclerosing agent such as ethanol or phenol. A 2019 meta-analysis by Hintz and colleagues in Vancouver gathered 19 studies of sclerotherapy with 1,510 children, most of them single-hospital case series; the success rate after one injection was 76.9%, and the authors rated the evidence relatively poor in quality. Moon’s review does not mention acupuncture.

What the acupuncture literature reports

Four reports indexed in PubMed describe acupuncture for rectal prolapse or its after-effects. Each title gives a number of treated cases, and none of the records names a comparison group or reports an outcome measure:

  • A 1987 report by Jin in the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine describes acupuncture in 67 children with prolapse of the rectum, of the type its title calls asthenic. The record has no abstract.
  • A 2002 report by Zhang at Beijing Children’s Hospital, in the same journal, describes 36 infants treated with extremely shallow needling. The record has no abstract.
  • A 2003 report by Gao and colleagues at a hospital in Daqing, in the same journal, describes 38 cases treated with acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine. Its abstract sets out the traditional account of the disorder, a sinking of qi in the middle burner (middle jiao) in children, older people, women after labour and people with chronic diarrhoea, constipation or cough, and reports no results.
  • A 2016 report by Liu and colleagues in Zhongguo Zhen Jiu, a Chinese acupuncture journal, describes electroacupuncture in 36 people with incomplete anal incontinence after an operation for rectal prolapse. The record has no abstract; Electroacupuncture describes the method.

A 2025 study by Zhang and colleagues at Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine analysed the records of 1,152 people treated for rectal prolapse at Nanjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from 2014 to 2021. It reports the herbal prescriptions they were given, not acupuncture, and its authors note a lack of large clinical studies of traditional Chinese medicine for the condition.

Trials after the procedure for prolapse and hemorrhoids

The procedure for prolapse and hemorrhoids (PPH), also called stapled hemorrhoidopexy, is an operation for prolapsing haemorrhoids, not for rectal prolapse, but its name brings its trials into searches for this condition. A 2023 trial by Shen and colleagues at the Fifth People’s Hospital of Shanghai randomised 124 people having PPH for mixed haemorrhoids to the operation alone or the operation with electroacupuncture at the Baliao point. The electroacupuncture group reported less anal pain from 8 to 72 hours after the operation and took fewer doses of painkillers; there was no sham group. A 2016 trial by Long and colleagues in Luzhou randomised 60 people after PPH to 7 days of acupuncture at BL34 (Xialiao) and GV01 (Changqiang) or to diosmin tablets, and reported less anal distension and pain with acupuncture. Haemorrhoids is the page on that condition.

What guidelines say

The American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons’ clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of rectal prolapse, published in November 2017, remain the society’s current guideline on the condition; Europe PMC listed no update by October 2026. As Guideline Central’s summary sets them out, the guidelines state that rectal prolapse cannot be corrected without an operation, though incontinence, pain and constipation can be eased medically (a weak recommendation on low-quality evidence), and their other recommendations concern assessment and the choice of operation. The summary lists no recommendation on acupuncture, and none that addresses children specifically. The Chinese expert consensus of the Anorectal Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, published in 2022, opens by stating that surgery is currently the only treatment that may correct rectal prolapse, and covers assessment and surgery. A 2026 consensus on pelvic floor physical therapy from the ASCRS Pelvic Floor Disorders Consortium and four other societies recommends prompt referral to a pelvic floor physical therapist for people with obstructed defecation or rectal prolapse who have no contraindication; its abstract does not mention acupuncture. Pelvic floor dysfunction reports acupuncture in other pelvic floor disorders, and Clinical guidelines compares bodies’ positions across conditions.

What the literature could not settle

No randomised trial of acupuncture or moxibustion for rectal prolapse itself, in adults or children, was found in PubMed, Europe PMC or ClinicalTrials.gov, and no review has weighed the subject, so there is no estimate of any effect to report. The four indexed reports are case series from China whose records give no outcomes in English; Where the trials come from discusses what the country of a study tells a reader. In children, where most prolapse settles with management of the bowel habit, an uncontrolled series cannot separate treatment from that course. Acupuncture for children covers safety in that age group.

AcuiQ’s rectal prolapse and faecal incontinence pages list the protocols clinical texts and individual studies prescribed, each with its citation.