Integrative Treatment Of Degenerative Lumbar Spinal Canal Stenosis, The Clinical Effect Observed

Lumbar spinal stenosis is a symdrome that consists of a series of clinical symptoms caused by the stenosis of lumbar spinal canal, and consequently causes compression on the nerves. It is commonly seen in orthopedics, and the middle-aged and the elderly are especially susceptible to it. It is mainly characterized by lumbago, intermittent limping, sensory disability in the lower limbs. According to the causes of the disease, it can be divided into two types: congenital spinal stenosis and retrogressive lumbar canal stenosis ,among which the retrogressive lumbar spinal canal stenosis being the most common. Retrogressive lumbar canal stenosis is closely associated with factors such as age, trauma, and physical labor with strong intensity. This type of disease is put into the category of arthromyodynia" or"lower back pain" in traditional Chinese medicine due to the invasion of pathogenic wind, cold, wet or heat in the exterior and the liver-kidney deficiency and qi-stagnancy and blood stasis in the interior.After doing some research on books and articles related to the retrogressive lumbar canal stenosis in recent 10 years, I did a literature review in which a detailed expiation of etiology,diagnosis, pathological changges, clinical types, characteristic of symptoms and methods of treatment of this disease in China and overseas with modern medicine is given; meanwhile, a comprehensive idea of etiology ,pathogenesis, characteristic of treatment with TCM is also expressed. The illustration uncovered the on-going research on Lumbar spinal stenosis and the various problems it demonstrates. The objective of this research is to fill the gap and hopefully provide a new approch for further study on this subject in the future.Objective: investigate the clinical effectiveness of the treatment by the combination of the semiconductor laser irradiation, bone-setting manipulation techniques and the knife-needle therapy.Methods: The observation was conducted on 36 hospitalized patients with Lumbar spinal stenosis in the third affiliated hospital of Beijing University of Chinese Medine from January, 2007 to July, 2007 .All those patients had refused to receive any surgery except conservative treatment. Semiconductor laser irradiation was done once each day, 10 minutes each time, a treatment course are 10 days; bone-setting manipulation was given one time previous day, 25～30 minutes each time; the knife-needle therapy was carried out once to three times. The curative effect was evaluated after three monthes.Results: Through statistical analysis of the JOA score rank test results of patients before and after treatment,a significant difference of the evaluation scores before and after treatment are seen, with Z =-7.081, bilateral p=0.000 <0.01. The improvement rate was gained based on the evaluation scores we got previouly, which is 76% with 100% reliability. The condition of patients with low back pain, limb pain and (or) numbness, poor walking ability, difficulty in straight-leg raising (including hamstring muscle tension), sensory dysfunction and kinesipathy has greatly improved.Conclusions: From what has been discussed, we can draw a conclusion that the treatment by the combination of the semiconductor laser irradiation, bone-setting manipulation techniques and the knife-needle therapy proves to be effective clinially.