Clinical Observation Of Combined Therapy Of Electroacupuncture And Herbal Fumigation In The Treatment Of Sciatica

BackgroundSciatica is the clinical syndrome of which main feature is the radioactive pain along the sciatic nerve distribution area, its pain area including the waist, hips, thigh and leg of posterolateral and feet lateral). The pain mainly is radioactive and it perform as electrical shock or burning-sensitive pain.Clinically the sciatica has many therapies, but there are some limitations of these therapies, such as technically higher requirements, or some side effects, or the disease is easily repeated etc. So it is necessary to seek a simple therapy which has obviously efficacy, low side effects.The purpose of this study is to find the best therapy of sciatica of which has the best curative effect and simple plan. This study will effectively promote the scientific research progress of sciatica, further enhances the pertinence of TCM treatment for sciatica, to shorten course, achieve better curative effect.ObjectivesThis study intends to use randomized,controlled test methods,through the observation of curative effect for sciatica treating by electroacupuncture combined with herbal fumigation. It uses the Visual Analog Scale(VAS) and the Behavioral Rating Scale (BRS-6) to estimate improvement of pain, thus preliminary evaluate the clinical curative effect of sciatica treating by electroacupuncture combined with herbal fumigation.MethodsThe test subjects who met inclusion criteria will randomly divide into the treatment group which treated by electroacupuncture combined with herbal fumigation) and the control group which treated by western medicine. The efficacy of the treatment group and the control group will be compared after two treatments. The observe indexes are the Visual Analog Scale(VAS)and the Behavioral Rating Scale(BRS-6). We rate the scores of the VAS and the BRS-6 before the treatment, and rate the scores again after the treatment. Finally use the SPSS13.0 software to statistical data analysis and conclusions.ResultsFor the sciatica which caused by lumbar intervertebral disc herniation, each groups had significant effect (the total effective rate of the treatment group is 96.7% and the total effective rate of the control group is 93.3%), but two treatment methods no significant difference in outcomes (P>0.05). There is clear curative effect of two groups for improving the patients'pain (before and after the treatment, the P value of the VAS score and the BRS-6 score<0.01). In the treatment group the VAS score and the BRS-6 score is significantly lower than the scores in the control group, after the treatment. According the comparison between the two groups, the P value of the VAS score=0.033<0.05 and the P value of the BRS-6 score=0.003<0.05.ConclusionThe treatment group and control group for the sciatica which caused by lumbar intervertebral disc herniation have obvious curative effect, but in improving the patients'pain aspect the treatment group is significantly better than the the control group.In other words, in improving the patients' pain aspect the electroacupuncture combined with herbal fumigation has obvious curative effect advantage, comparing the western medicine therapy...