Ultrasound-guided injection acupotomy as a minimally invasive intervention therapy for cervical spondylotic radiculopathy: a randomized control trial.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided injection acupotomy as a minimally invasive intervention treatment of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR). METHODS: 160 CSR subjects were recruited who met the inclusion criteria in our hospital from October 2019 to December 2021. The subjects were randomly divided into the experimental and control group, with 80 cases in each. The experimental group received ultrasound-guided injection acupotomy as a minimally invasive intervention therapy. The control group received ultrasound-guided selective nerve root block (SNRB). The Odom's criteria clinical curative effect, visual analogue scale (VAS), neck disability index (NDI), and 36-Item Short Form Health Survey questionnaire (SF-36) were used to evaluate the outcome of subjects at several different points in time. RESULTS: At 30 min and 1 month after the end of treatment, there was no significant difference in any scores. However, after six months, the excellent and good rate was better in the experimental group compared to the control (RD = 0.175; 95% CI, 0.044-0.300, p = 0.009). The total effective rate was also better in the experimental group (RD = 0.126; 95% CI, 0.021-0.232, p = 0.018). In contrast, the VAS score (MD = -0.500; 95% CI, -1.000-0.000, p = 0.030) and NDI score (MD = -6.460; 95% CI, -11.067 to -1.852, p = 0.006) were lower in the experimental group compared to the control. The total SF-36 score was higher in the experimental group (MD = 7.568; 95% CI, 2.459-12.677, p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Ultrasound-guided injection acupotomy minimally invasive interventional treatment of CSR has no significant difference in short-term curative effect compared with ultrasound-guided SNRB, but the data indicators are significantly better than the latter at 6 months after the end of the course of treatment, showing better long-term efficacy.