Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Efficacy of acupuncture and Chinese herbal fumigation comprehensive therapy in relieving neck, shoulder, lumbar, and leg pain in patients

Jian Huang¹, Hong Wang¹, Jun Chen¹, Yizhi Huang¹, Yingyin Wang¹, Bin Pan²

¹Department of Orthopaedics, Maâ€™anshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Anhui Province, China; ²The Second Department of Acupuncture and Rehabilitation, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Shushan District, Hefei City, Anhui Province, China.

For correspondence:- Bin Pan Email: panbin996@163.com

Accepted: 28 March 2023 Published: 29 April 2023

Citation: Huang J, Wang H, Chen J, Huang Y, Wang Y, Pan B. Efficacy of acupuncture and Chinese herbal fumigation comprehensive therapy in relieving neck, shoulder, lumbar, and leg pain in patients. Trop J Pharm Res 2023; 22(4):879-885 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v22i4.22

© 2023 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture and Chinese herbal fumigation in relieving neck, shoulder, lumbar, and leg pain in patients.

Methods: This study recruited 94 patients with neck, shoulder, lumbar, and leg pain admitted to Ma’anshan Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine between January 2019 and December 2020. The patients were randomized into either study group or comprehensive group. Study group was given routine therapy, including administration of celecoxib capsules and imrecoxib tablets, fumigation, and acupuncture, while the comprehensive group received comprehensive therapy, including celecoxib capsules and imrecoxib tablets + acupuncture + fumigation + rehabilitation exercise + needle knife therapy. The treatment outcome, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome score, visual analogue scale (VAS) score, Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score, Barthel index, Fugl-Meyer score, and MOS item short-form health survey (SF-36) scores were recorded.

Results: Comprehensive therapy resulted in significantly better treatment outcomes than routine therapy (p < 0.05). The swelling, pain, and functional limitation TCM evidence score in the comprehensive group were lower than those in the study group (p < 0.05). Comprehensive therapy was associated with a more significant reduction in the VAS scores of patients and more enrichment in JOA scores and Barthel index than routine therapy (p < 0.05). Patients treated with comprehensive therapy showed higher FuglMeyer (upper limb and lower limb) and SF-36 scores than those with routine therapy (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Acupuncture and Chinese herbal fumigation comprehensive therapy effectively relieve the pain of patients and promote recovery of lumbar spine function as well as motor ability, thereby enhancing the patient’s quality of life.

Keywords: Acupuncture, Chinese herbal fumigation, Comprehensive therapy, Neck, shoulder, lumbar, and leg pain, Efficacy