Revista Internacional de Acupuntura最新文献

Introduction

Post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) is common among patients undergoing surgical procedures with spinal anesthesia. Conservative therapy might be associated with poor outcomes and delayed recovery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of acupuncture on post-dural puncture headache in comparison to conservative treatment.

Method

In this single-blind randomized clinical trial 60 PDPH patients were divided into three groups. Group A received conservative pharmacological treatment, group B received acupuncture and group C received acupuncture sham. Outcomes were measured as pain intensity (visual analog scale VAS) and recovery time (time that pain falls from 4–7 to 0–3 on visual analog scale).

Results

All three groups had no significant difference in terms of gender, age, and baseline pain (immediately after the surgery). Pain intensity decreased significantly in acupuncture group comparing to other groups. Furthermore, acupuncture reduced pain faster than other treatments. The overall general condition of the patients in group A and B was not significantly different, however significantly improved compared to group C.

Conclusion

Acupuncture therapy can be an effective method to manage PDPH in a shorter time and can reduce the need for epidural blood patch and pharmacological analgesia. However, further randomized trails are required to validate these findings.

Tibial muscular dystrophy is a neuromuscular disease characterized by weakness in plantar flexion with low incidence in Mexico but a rather high presence in Finland. The case of a 69-year-old Mexican man diagnosed with tibial muscular dystrophy is presented. Following 4-month treatment with both acupuncture and physical therapy, results of increased muscular strength and articular mobility were achieved.

Objective

Evaluation of the energy levels of patients with dental pain before and after acupuncture or dipyrone.

Design

Analysis of energy parameters from a randomised double-blind clinical trial.

Location

Piracicaba Dentistry Faculty (FOP/Unicamp) in Piracicaba/SP, Brazil.

Participants

The clinical trial included 56 volunteers randomly assigned into 4 groups: Acupuncture, Placebo Acupuncture, Dipyrone and Dipyrone Placebo. The selected volunteers presented dental pain of pulpal origin with a pain score of over 4.

Interventions

Before any therapeutic intervention, the volunteers’ energy levels were measured using the Ryodoraku method. After this procedure, each volunteer received treatment according to their group. After 20 minutes, the volunteers’ energy and pain levels were measured again.

Main measurements

Ryodoraku and pain scale.

Results

All the patients had a deficient energy profile before the intervention. There was a numerical drop in energy in all groups after the interventions. The kidney meridian presented the greatest laterality imbalance before the interventions. There was no relationship between the side of the dental pain and the side with the highest energy of the meridian with the greatest laterality imbalance.

Conclusions

The patients with dental pain showed energy deficiency before therapeutic interventions, with a higher imbalance in the kidney meridian and a higher loss of energy when placebo acupuncture was used.

Introduction

In the absence of a vaccine or specific treatment to control the current pandemic, it is necessary to continue investigating potential therapeutic agents against COVID-19. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used in the treatment of patients with SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus), and may have a role in the prevention, treatment, or rehabilitation of patients with COVID-19.

Objective

Describe the current state of the scientific literature published until May 17, 2020 about TCM in the management of patients with COVID-19.

Material and methods

Scoping review that included PubMed, Embase, Scopus and 18 databases of the World Health Organization International Registry of Clinical Trials Platforms. Empirical and theoretical publications in English and Spanish were included.

Results

A total of 35 documents and 93 clinical trial records (n = 128) were included; 46 clinical trials evaluated decoctions, capsules, granules, injections, and oral solutions based on herbal agents. The documents were narrative reviews (n = 9), letters to the editor (n = 6), editorials (n = 3), systematic reviews (n = 4), in silico studies (n = 4), comments (n = 2), case series (n = 2), and clinical practice recommendations (n = 2), clinical practice guidelines (n = 1), in vitro studies (n = 1), and opinion article (n = 1).

Conclusions

Only two case series studies using herbal remedies reported benefits for patients with mild and severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. There are 78 ongoing randomized controlled trials that will soon provide evidence on the efficacy and safety of TCM in patients with COVID-19.

This article presents the case of a 55-year-old female patient who attended an acupuncture consultation with a one-month history of facial paralysis with failure of pharmacological treatment. The patient was treated with acupuncture and electroacupuncture for 3 weeks, 2 sessions per week (6 treatment sessions), obtaining full recovery of facial gestures and symmetry. This result suggests the effectiveness of acupuncture and electroacupuncture at low frequencies as a treatment for facial paralysis.

In treating patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMJ), therapies are required that reduce pain and improve chewing capacity. Various potential complementary therapies have been investigated and, it is the responsibility of dentists to choose the most appropriate treatment based on the existing evidence. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review is to determine the level of evidence about the efficacy of complementary therapies for the control of TMJ pain. For the search, the databases Pubmed, Clinical Trials, and Science Direct were consulted, as well as Scholar Google for grey literature. Publication time restriction was applied, considering articles published from 2010 to 2020. Randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) focused on the complementary treatment of pain were included. These studies were centralized either with acupuncture, ozone therapy, platelet-rich plasma, or phonophoresis in patients with temporomandibular disorders unrelated to degenerative joint disorders. The organization, data extraction, assessment of bias, and quality were done according to the PRISMA guidelines (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), the PICO strategy, the ROB2 tool, and the GRADE system (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation), respectively. Due to the wide heterogeneity of the studies, a meta-analysis was not performed. Eight RCTs were included that met the eligibility criteria, which reported positive results in the control of pain for TMJ by using the complementary therapies studied; however, the evidence is insufficient to recommend any of these specific therapies.

Introduction

Muscle injuries are prevalent in sports practice among high performance athletes and amateurs. Considering the wide clinical variety of this morbidity (extension and different presentations), there is an interest in studying the effect of acupuncture on the treatment of pain related to muscle injury in an identical model. Microsystem acupuncture is a practical, economical, fast-acting therapeutic resource with few side effects.

Method

This study is a clinical trial in which 22 patients undergoing anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) surgery were divided into two groups. In group 1, the participants received established rehabilitation treatment. Participants in group 2 received acupuncture treatment using nasal microsystem and cranial suture microsystem techniques, in addition to the rehabilitation program, to relieve muscle pain in the graft harvesting region. Participants were assessed for pain outcome by the Numerical Pain Scale (NPS) from the first to the sixth postoperative week.

Results

Both groups showed a statistically significant reduction in pain as treatment progressed; however, a better outcome was evident in the acupuncture-treated group compared with the control group from the second to the fourth week (p < 0.001). There was also a significant reduction in pain score before and immediately after the acupuncture session on the fifth postoperative day (p< 0.001).

Conclusion

The results of the present study suggest that the addition of acupuncture treatment with nasal microsystem and cranial suture microsystem techniques to the established rehabilitation treatment has brought benefits in reducing thigh muscle pain in the early postoperative period.

Objective

To investigate the effects of acupuncture added to standard postoperative care on postoperative pain and nausea-vomiting after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Design

A prospective randomized clinical trial.

Setting

University of Health Science Kartal Dr Lütfi Kırdar Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.

Participants

Eighty patients, 18-65 years old, American Society of Anesthesiologist's physical status of I-III: 40 subjects in the acupuncture (real points) group and 40 in sham (1 cm lateral to the real points and more superficial) group.

Interventions

Acupuncture needles were inserted in 7 points including bilateral ST 36, LI 4, P 6 and extra 1 10 minutes before starting anesthesia induction. The needles were manually rotated periodically throughout the surgical procedure. All patients were given 1.5 mg/kg tramadol and 10 mg metoclopramide intravenously 10 minutes before surgical completion. When the visual analog scale was ≥ 5, 1 g of paracetamol was administered intravenously and then 75 mg of diclofenac sodium was administered intramuscularly. Acupuncture needles were removed after extubation.

Main measurements

Hemodynamic parameters were recorded during the surgical procedure and visual analog scale, first analgesic requirement, total amount of analgesic requirement during postoperative 24-hours, nausea-vomiting, necessity for antiemetic medication and side effects were evaluated at postoperative 0, 2nd, 6th, 12th, and 24th hours.

Results

In the acupuncture group, visual analogue scale values were lower (p < 0.001), the first analgesic requirement was later (p < 0.001), the time to first analgesic requirement was longer (p < 0.001) and the incidence of nausea-vomiting was lower during the 0, 2nd, and 6th hours (p = 0.003, p = 0.01, p = 0.02). Analgesic and antiemetic requirements were also lower in the first 24 hours (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Acupuncture treatment reduces postoperative pain and nausea-vomiting incidence, antiemetic and analgesic requirements especially in the first 6 hours, and its combination with conventional postoperative treatment is effective and safe.

Japan has a rich history of remarkable events that shaped it to become one of the world's leading powers in our time. Japanese Traditional Medicine, particularly acupuncture, has been directly influenced by these events. This is evident from the rudimentary Jomon period, going through periods of very turbulent social and geopolitical conditions such as the Heian and Edo periods, which influenced and changed the course of the acupuncture that had been practiced from China. Such events gave rise to what we know today as Japanese acupuncture. After 1,500 years of being used in the clinical field, Japanese acupuncture now faces the great challenge of establishing a firm scientific evidence base to support its claims. To achieve this it is necessary to understand where its particular characteristics come from, from its contextualization in the historical events that have shaped it over the years