Objective To systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture and moxibustion combined with internal administration of Tradition Chinese Medicine prescriptions for the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), so as to provide evidence⁃based medical basis for clinics. Methods Clinical randomized controlled trials related to acupuncture and moxibustion combined with internal administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine prescriptions for the treatment of AS collected in the databases such as China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP, Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform, PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Service System were retrieved. After performing literature screening and quality evaluation, the RevMan 5.3 software provided by the Cochrane collaboration was employed to make a bias risk assessment diagram, and the Stata/SE 12.0 software was used to perform a Meta⁃analysis. Results A total of 26 literature was enrolled, containing 2306 patients. The results of Meta⁃analysis revealed that compared with the control group, the observation group exhibited a higher total effective rate of treatment, whereas a lower incidence rate of adverse reactions, more significant improvement of spinal range of motion, shorter morning stiffness time, larger thoracic motion, a lower erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and lower levels of C⁃reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor α (P<0.05). Conclusion Acupuncture and moxibustion combined with internal administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine prescriptions for the treatment of AS can elevate the total effective rate, increase thoracic motion, decrease inflammatory factors levels and the incidence rate of adverse reactions.

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