Acupoint Embedding of Polyglactin 910 Sutures in Patients with Chronic Pain due to Cervical Spondylotic Radiculopathy: A Multicenter, Randomized, Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract

Objective We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acupoint polyglactin 910 (PGLA) embedding in patients with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR). Methods A total of 102 CSR patients with neck and shoulder pain were recruited and assigned randomly into three groups: the sham acupoint embedding (SAE) group, the middle-layer acupoint PGLA embedding (MAPE) group, and the deep-layer acupoint PGLA embedding (DAPE) group. The primary outcomes were Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores showing the analgesic effects of treatment. Secondary outcomes included clinical symptoms (evaluated by the Yasuhisa Tanaka 20 (YT-20) score and the neck disability index (NDI)) and patient health status (evaluated by the 36-item short-form survey (SF-36)) as reported in the trial. Results Compared with the SAE group, VAS scores were significantly reduced at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10 weeks after the first treatment in both the DAPE and MAPE groups (P < 0.001). Moreover, there were statistically significant increases in the weekly YT-20 scores and significant reductions of the weekly NDI scores compared with baseline values in both the DAPE and MAPE groups (P < 0.001). Compared with baseline values, both the physical component summary (PCS) and the mental component summary scores of the SF-36 at 2, 3, 4, and 10 weeks were significantly higher in the DAPE and MAPE groups (P < 0.001). There were significant lower VAS scores (P < 0.01), higher PCS scores (P < 0.05) at 3 weeks, and lower NDI scores (P < 0.05) at 4 weeks in the DAPE group compared with the MAPE group. Conclusions Both DAPE and MAPE showed significant and long-lasting effects on alleviating pain and improving clinical symptoms as well as quality of life in CSR patients with neck and shoulder pain. A more intense effect was seen in the DAPE group compared with the MAPE group.

Thread Embedded Acupuncture for Non-Specific Posterior Neck Pain: A PRISMA-Compliant Protocol for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…25 Several studies have been conducted to prove the safety and effectiveness of TEA. Kim et al 15 and Chu et al 16 conducted RCTs and reported that TEA was not associated with serious side effects of TEA and that it significantly improved the quality of life of patients. Kim et al 26 reported that there was a significant improvement of pain relief in TEA compared to that with conventional physical therapy.…”

“…13 In a rat model, TEA controlled the activation of the GluN1 subunit of the NMDA receptor and blocked the Ca ++dependent channels involved in inflammatory pain reaction. 14 Although several randomized control trials (RCTs) have shown that TEA has a more effective and longlasting therapeutic potential than sham thread, conventional analgesics, or other treatments, 15,16 there is limited evidence on the therapeutic effect of TEA in NPNP. 8 Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of TEA compared to that of other treatment methods in the treatment of NPNP.…”

Analysis of Clinical Research Trends for Thread Embedding Acupuncture of Cervical Radiculopathy

“…None of the studies differed significantly regarding general information such as sex ratio, age, and morbidity period between groups before treatment. Three studies experienced dropouts [14,21,30]. Thirty-five dropout cases were reported overall, including 21 in treatment groups and 14 in control groups.…”

“…Thirty-five dropout cases were reported overall, including 21 in treatment groups and 14 in control groups. All trials were conducted in China of which, one study was written in English [14]. Four studies involved three-arm parallel trials [14,17,21,33], and the remainder all involved two-arm trials.…”

Thunder-fire moxibustion for cervical spondylotic radiculopathy: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…Yasuhisa Tanaka 20 Score Scale The Yasuhisa Tanaka 20 Score Scale [14][15][16] has proven its efficiency to assess cervical spondylotic radiculopathy. It consists of nine items, which includes the severity of neck pain, stupefaction, and the pain from upper limbs or fingers.…”