Authors (including presenting author) :
Chung HT, Lau WK, Yuen CH, Cheung CT
Affiliation :
Physiotherapy Department, Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital
Introduction :
Low back pain and sciatica is an extremely common problem in which most people experience at some point of their life. It occurs more frequently in age between 30-65 and in women. It has a substantial impact on individuals, health-care systems and causing financial burden to society. Conservative treatment is always considered before surgery. Conventional pain relief modalities in physiotherapy involves transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and interferential therapy, in which the effect is temporary. Acupuncture with new needling method may consider to be a new way in physiotherapy management of acute LBP or sciatica.
Objectives :
To evaluate the effectiveness of the acupuncture on (1) pain relief and (2) numeric global rate of change scale (NGRCS) in patient with acute LBP or sciatica.
Methodology :
A prospective, pretest-posttest interventional study was employed. Patients, who were referred to physiotherapy with diagnosis of lower back pain or sciatica, onset within 6 months and with Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) more than 5/10, were recruited to the project. With the physical examination, acupuncture needles were inserted to the potentially affected muscles, including erector spinae, multifidus, rotateres, piriformis, quadratus lumborum, etc. The needles were left for 20-30 minutes with intermittent brief forward/backward stroke or sweeping. Electrical acupuncture would be implemented instead of manual needling if the acupuncture sensation was not strong enough. Outcome measures were (1) subjective pain intensity of the LBP or sciatica by NPRS and (2) NGRCS. A two-tailed paired t-test was conducted for statistical analysis.
Result & Outcome :
Weekly based acupuncture treatment was performed on 85 patients (50 females and 35 males) with the mean age of 50.3. The average treatment session was 4.3 sessions. The average duration of LBP or sciatica before receiving acupuncture was 7.2 weeks. There was significant reduction of average NPRS by 60.0%(p< 0.0001) from average NPRS 6.8/10 to 2.8/10. The average NGRCS was significantly improved from 0/10 to 6.0/10(p< 0.0001).
Conclusion:
Acupuncture with new needling method can significantly reduce the pain intensity level in patients with acute LBP or sciatica and improve patients condition by average 60%.
