Clinical Research On Herbal Patch Combined With Electro-acupuncture Treating Lumbar Intervertebral Disc Herniation

Back groundThe degeneration of intervertebral disc, Annulus rupture and Herniated nucleus stimulate or oppress nerve root and cauda equine. That cause the lumbar intervertebral disc herniation. Lumbar intervertebral disc herniation is one of the most common causes of low back pain. Lumbar disc herniation pain is the main reason that cause patient comes for visiting doctors and the greatest impact and quality of life factors. A number of studies show that Herbal Patch and electro-acupuncture can reduce pain caused by lumbar intervertebral disc herniation. Herbal Patch has the characteristics of painless, convenient, safety and no obvious side effects.The herbal stimulate acupoint directly and for long time. This feature improve clinical efficacy.ObjectivesThe degeneration of intervertebral disc, Annulus rupture and Herniated nucleus stimulate or oppress nerve root and cauda equine. That causes the lumbar intervertebral disc herniation. Lumbar intervertebral disc herniation is one of the most common causes of low back pain. Lumbar disc herniation pain is the main reason that cause patient comes for visiting doctors and the greatest impact and quality of life factors. A number of studies show that Herbal Patch and electro-acupuncture can reduce pain caused by lumbar intervertebral disc herniation. Herbal Patch has the characteristics of painless, convenient, safety and no obvious side effects. The herbal stimulate acupoint directly and for long time. This feature improve clinical efficacy. MethodsThis study selected patients suffer from lumbar intervertebral disc herniation from June 2010 to April 2011 in outpatient acupuncture department in the first affiliated hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.60 patients, according to the order of admission, were randomly assigned to only electro-acupuncture group(the control group) and herbal patch combined with electro-acupuncture group in 1:1 ratio by order of treatment. These two groups are under randomized controlled method. All enrolled patients received 2 courses of treatment. The efficiency was measure with M-JOA and MPQ. All the datas were analyzed with SPSS11.5 software package.Result1. According to statistical results of M-JOA, after 1 course of treatment, two groups had significant statistical difference after 1 course of treatment than that before the treatment (P<0.01). after 2 courses of treatment, two groups had significant statistical difference after 1 course of treatment than that before the treatment (P<0.01).2. According to statistical results of M-JOA, after 1 course of treatment, the treatment group had the better result in subjective symptoms than the control group with a significant statistical difference (P<0.05). The objective symptoms, the daily life and work capacity, the M-JOA scores were not significant statistical difference (P>0.05). After 2 courses of treatment, the treatment group had the better result in subjective symptoms than the control group with a significant statistical difference (P<0.05). The objective symptoms, the daily life and work capacity, the M-JOA scores were not significant statistical difference (P>0.05)3.According to statistical results of MPQ, both groups can significantly reduce the MPQ score after treatment. Except VAS score, other sub-scale and their total scores had no significant statistical differences.4.After the first course and the second of treatments, VAS scores of the two groups were significantly decreased and were significantly different than that before the treatment. The VAS scores of treatment group were decreased more greatly than that in control group with a significant statistical difference (P<0.05) ConclusionHerbal patch combined with electro-acupuncture therapy can improve the clinical efficacy of lumbar intervertebral disc herniation. It is a safe and effective conservative treatment of traditional Chinese medicine. Herbal patch combined with electro-acupuncture therapy is better than normal electro-acupuncture therapy for decreasing pain. It has applied worth in treatment of lumbar intervertebral disc herniation in clinic.