Clinical Observation On Needling Combined With Rehabilitation Treatment Of Foot-Drop For Post-Stroke Patients

Objective:To intergrate contemporary rehabilitation theory with traditional Acupuncture therapy, try to offer an reliably feasible and effective rehabilitation regimen for post-stroke patients' foot-drop and provide the powerful evidence of Acupuncture therapy in foot-drop throught clinical observation on needing treatment of foot-drop for post-stroke patients. Method:The cases were randomly divided into group A and group B. There were 20 patients each group. Using electro-acupuncture and rehabilitation exercise in the treatment group(A) while using exercise treatment in the control group (B). All the cases received neural medical routine heteropathy, supporting treatment and rehabilitation exercise .Group Also received acupuncture. The exercise was for 30 min per day. We selected four suffering limb acupunc-ture points everyday. There were Zusanli (S36), Yanglingquan(G34), Shen-mai ( B62) , Jiexi(S41), Taixi(K), Shcngsan (BS7), Taichong(Liv3). Each point was stimulated by electric acupuncture apparatus after routine disinfect and the feeling of filiform needling appeared. The frequency of continuous wave was 20-30HZ. Stimulating lasted for 30 min per day. All the cases were treated for three months. Every cases were evaluated according to the following items before treatment, after one month treatment and after three-month treatment . We compared the effect between the two groups by statistical analyse. Theevaluating items included (1)Modified Ashworth Scale for musculus triceps surae spasticity. (2)Kendall method for anterior tibial muscle myody-namia. (3)Carr-shepherd balance scale for balance funtion and walking scale for walking ability. (4)Chedoke-Mcmaster degree for suffering foot recovering stago. (b)Barthel Index scales (BI) for ability of daily life. Result:The scores of musculus triceps surae spasticity, anterior-tibial muscle myodynamia, walking ability, suffering foot recovering stage and ADL were very significant (P<0. 001) in both groups after treatment. The scores were significant (P<0. 05) after one-month treatment and very significant (P<0. 01) after three-month treatment between A and B. (2)The scores of balance funtion were significant (P<0. 001)after treatment while not significant between A and B (P>0. 05).Conclusion: Combined electro-acupuncture and exercise treatment can alleviate musculus triceps surae spasticity enhance anterior tibial muscle strength, promote the ankle joint motion , promote ADL and accelerate the recovery of walking ability for foot-drop patients to promote the quality of living (QOL). The periods of treatment were still long but the reliable effect was especially obvious with the time of persisting treatment.