2.2. Search strategy

The initial search date was July 21, 2018, and that of the update search was November 27, 2018. The following English, Chinese, and Korean databases were comprehensively searched from their inception dates to search date: Medline (via PubMed), EMBASE (via Elsevier), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (via EBSCO), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (via EBSCO), China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, VIP, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, Research Information Service System, and Korea Citation Index. We reviewed the reference lists of relevant articles to identify additional trials. The following search terms were used in Medline: (acupotomy OR acupotomology OR acupotome OR “needle knife” OR “needle scalpel” OR “miniscalpel” OR “stiletto needle” OR “sword-like needle” OR “mini needle knife” OR “xiaozhendai”) AND (“cerebral palsy” [MeSH Terms] OR “cerebral palsy” OR “cerebral paralysis”). The search strategy used in other databases is provided in Supplementary Digital Content 1.