Clinical research on fire filiform needle combined with mild moxibustion for postherpetic neuralgia / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To compare efficacy differences between fire filiform needle combined with mild moxibustion and gabapentin combined with sham acupuncture for postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred cases of PHN were randomly divided into a needle group and a medicine group, 50 cases in each one. In the needle group, pricking method of fire filiform needle was given at the Ashi points, and then mild moxibustion was applied for 15 min. In the medicine group, the oral administration of gabapentin capsule and sham acupuncture at non-acupoints in the distal end of lesions were applied. The treatment was required for 21 days in both groups. The visual analogue score (VAS) was recorded before treatment and on the 1st day, 2nd day, 3rd day, 6th day, 9th day and 12th day of treatment. The most severity of pain within last 24 h, preset severity of pain, immediate analgesia effect and starting time of pain relief were observed, also the efficacy was assessed and improvement of symptoms was observed in the follow-up visit.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The total effective rate was 94.0% (47/50) in the fire filiform needle group, which was superior to 86.0% (43/50) in the medicine group (P < 0.05). Compared with medicine group, the VAS of the most severity of pain within last 24 h was obviously reduced after the 2nd treatment in the fire filiform needle group while that of present severity of pain was relieved after the 1st treatment (both P < 0.05). The immediate analgesia effect in the fire filiform needle group was obviously superior to that in the medicine group in the first three times of treatment (all P < 0.05). The average time of pain relief was (3.91 +/- 0.82) days in the fire filiform needle group, which was significantly earlier to (6.53 +/- 1.13) days in the medicine group (P < 0.05). 26 cases were cured in the fire filiform needle group in the follow-up visit, which was superior to 2 cases in the medicine group (P < 0.05). The improvement of VAS, pain range and sleep quality in the needle group were also superior to those in the medicine group (all P < 0.05). The direct medical cost in the fire filiform needle group was (232.32 +/- 48.108) yuan, which was significantly lower than (466.00 +/- 41.09) yuan in the medicine group (P < 0.05). There was only one case of adverse effect in the medicine group during the treatment.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The fire filiform needle combined with mild moxibustion could obviously relieve the pain in PHN patients, which has superior immediate analgesia effect and pain relieving time compared with gabapentin, which also has less adverse effects and cheap cost.</p>

Observation on therapeutic effect of acupuncture on spontaneous facial paralysis in acute stage / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the therapeutic effect and to explore the best opportunity of acupuncture on spontaneous facial paralysis in acute stage.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>By prospective cohort study, 80 patients were divided into an observation group (n = 59) and a control group (n = 21). The course of disease was less than 5 days in the observation group and more than 7 days in the control group and had not received acupuncture treatment. They were all treated with acupuncture at Sibai (ST 2), Dicang (ST 4), Jiache (ST 6) and Cuanzhu (BL 2) etc. for 8 weeks. The facial nerve function grading (House-Brackmann, HB) and facial disable index (FDI) before treatment, 8 days after onset, 2, 4, 6, 8 weeks and 3 months after treatment were evaluated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Both two groups could decrease HB grading and increase FDI score (all P < 0.05), and the observation group was superior to the control group in improvement degree (all P < 0.05). The cured rate of 86.4% (51/59) in the observation group was superior to that of 76.2% (16/21) in the control group, with significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05). Compared with the control group, the treatment time of cured patients in the observation group was shorter [(25.98 +/- 11.25) days vs (39.31 +/- 13.07) days, P < 0.01], and the incidence of sequelae of 5.1% (3/59) in the observation group was lower than that of 9.5% (2/21) in the control group (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Acupuncture can improve the therapeutic effect, shorten the treatment course and reduce the sequelae incidence of spontaneous facial paralysis in acute stage.</p>

Literature analysis of electroacupuncture stimulation index on the treatment of sciatica / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To summarize the main electroacupuncture stimulation indexes used in clinical treatment and experimental study on sciatica, and to investigate the optimal stimulation index for sciatica treatment with electroacupuncture.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The data was obtained on line from the computerized general and specialized databases such as CBM, VIP, CNKI, and MEDLINE. Data analysis was focused on the different effects of electroacupuncture with different stimulation indexes.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>(Clinical research suggested that the commonly used electroacupuncture stimulation indexes included frequency of 1-20 Hz, electric current of 0.2-0.8 mA, continuous and dilatational waveform. The intensity of stimulation was endurable for patients. (2) The frequency of electroacupuncture used for animal experimental research was mainly concentrated among 2-20 Hz, which 2 Hz and 5 Hz had better effects for sciatica treatment with electroacupuncture. The scale of electric current was 0. 4-10 mA with intermittent waveform. The intensity of stimulation was decided by a visible muscle contraction occurred during the acupuncture.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Different kinds of electroacupuncture stimulation indexes have different effects on the treatment of sciatica. Therefore, it is still needed the more evidence from higher quality clinical trials to investigate the optimal electroacupuncture stimulation indexes on the treatment of sciatica.</p>

Trial for replacing fire needle by filiform needle / 中国针灸

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To promote a new kind of alternative needle of filiform-fire needle with fire needle.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The common three-headed fire needle, thick fire needle, less-thick fire needle, fine fire needle, single-filiform needle and three-filiform-needle were used by 20 medical staffs, and the time of heating needles was recorded. The advantages of using filiform needles compared with common fire needles were evaluated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The time of heating single and three-filiform needles was shorter than the other four common fire needles (all P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Filiform needle is better than the common fire needle in terms of production process,materials, and heating time, etc. Therefore, filiform needles can replace common fire needles for pricking.</p>