Intervertebral disc disease (IVDD) in dogs and humans causes pain and limits movement. This systematic review and metaanalysis analyzed published literature to determine the efficacy of acupuncture treatment to enhance outcomes for these patients. Literature was obtained through the following search engines: Library & Information Resources Network, Google Scholar, PubMed, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. The following keywords were used for the literature search: “Intervertebral disc disease”, “Intervertebral disc herniation”, “Acupuncture”, and “Treatment” (and/or “therapy”). Inclusion criteria for meta-analysis required canine or human controlled studies reporting treatment outcome data that evaluated acupuncture’s efficacy. Fifty-five articles underwent in-depth review, with 12 studies (5 canine, 7 human) identified for meta-analysis. In canine studies, findings demonstrated combining acupuncture with conventional treatment was significantly more effective than conventional treatment only, both for treatment success rate (p=0.0006) and shorter recovery time (p=0.0012). In human studies, findings also demonstrated combining acupuncture with conventional treatment was significantly more effective than conventional treatment alone in terms of treatment success rate (p=0.008), as well as better scores on visual analog scale (p=0.0001), Japanese Orthopedic Association scale (p=0.0038), and pain score (p=0.0103). In addition, acupuncture treatment alone in human studies had a significantly improved treatment success rate when compared to conventional treatment only (p=0.014). Despite promising early results, the current body of evidence is limited by the small number of controlled studies available for review. Further well-designed clinical trials are essential to determine the validity of these findings and establish effective evidence-based acupuncture treatment protocols.