Electric Needle Hoku Clinical Observations, Fatigue And The Role Of Maternal Oxytocin On Uterine Contraction

1 BackgroundThe uterine inertia, primary and secondary, is divided into the coordination and discoordination types. Mainly manifested as weak contraction of uterus and prolonged process of labor, it it liable to cause fetal distress, leading to cesarean section, postpartum hemorrhage, and puerperous complications. Acupuncture is indicated in the protracted labor due to the abnormality of force of labor from the uterine inertia.There are different ways to strengthen the contraction of uterus to quicken the process of labor in modern obstetric department. The commonly used ones are artificial rupture of fetal membranes and the intravenous drip of small dosage of oxytocin, but with inevitable complications such as metrypercinesia, fetal distress, hemorrhage, infection, amniotic embolism, and prolapse of umbilical cord, etc., producing pains and injuries even death to the mother and baby. That acupuncture is applied for the purpose to induce labor has a long history because of its advantages in relieving the pain, promoting the maturity of uterine neck, strengthening the contraction, shortening the process, and reducing the hemorrhage, playing an important role in the clinical practice of obstetric department in the past and modern times. In acupuncture, of the points selected for this purpose, Hegu (LI 4) is most commonly used, especially significant in the induction of labor of late stage of pregnancy. There are many records that Hegu (LI 4) is contraindicated in pregnancy and it is effective in induction of labor in TCM historical literature.Yet, there lacks the evaluation criterion of effect. The course of treatment is different from each other, making it difficult to evaluate the therapeutic effect without the strict design of clinical experiment with random, control and blind method, thus there is no standard acupuncture treatment for the uterine inertia. This is the reason that there isn't the evaluation and verification on the relative specificity of Hegu (LI 4) in inducing labor for without observation on this single point.2 MethodsIn the very study, from Feb.2004 to Mar.2005, the patients of Beijing Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology affiliated to Capital University of Medical Sciences were selected with strict criterion of diagnosis, enrollment, exclusion, and rejection. After signed the Agreement on Knowing the Facts, the patients were randomized into the treatment (acupuncture + medicine) group or the control...