Chronic low-back pain is a very common condition for which no universally accepted treatment exists.
Acupuncture is a commonly used therapy to treat chronic pain.
Four peer-reviewed literature articles were identified. There are flaws in the design of all four studies. The efficacy of acupuncture for patients with chronic low-back pain has not been demonstrated with sound randomized controlled clinical trials. This paper suggests an alternate design and methodology to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in the management of chronic low-back pain.