Rehabilitation of An Analgesic Bracelet Based on Wrist-Ankle Acupuncture in Patients with Rotator Cuff Injury: A Randomized Trial

Abstract

Objective. To evaluate the effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (C-TENS) in the rehabilitation of rotator cuff injury. Methods. A total of 60 patients diagnosed with mild to moderate rotator cuff injury were randomly divided into the control group and test group. Both groups received conventional rehabilitation treatment including physical therapy, joint mobilization, interventional therapy, and family recovery training. The test group additionally received TENS treatment on the upper area 4 or 5 of the wrist, based on the wrist-ankle acupuncture (WAA) theory. The results of the visual analogue scale (VAS), shoulder range of motion (ROM), and Constant-Murley score (CMs) were collected before and after the 1st treatment and after the 5th treatment. The differences of those indicators between the two groups were analyzed statistically. Results. The VAS scores of measurement points after treatment were all improved compared with those at baseline. There was a significant difference between the two groups after the 1st and the 5th treatment ( p < 0.05 ), and the improvements in the test group were better than those in the control group. The ROM of flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, internal rotation, and external rotation after the 1st treatment and 5th treatment in both groups were all improved compared with those at baseline. There was no significant difference between two groups. The CMs of the two groups after the 5th treatment were all improved compared with those at baseline. There was no significant difference between two groups. No adverse events occurred during the treatment. Conclusion. Electrical stimulation on the wrist combined with conventional rehabilitation is more effective in relieving pain than the conventional rehabilitation alone. Electrical stimulation on the wrist combined with conventional rehabilitation has no obvious effect in improving shoulder joint mobility and shoulder function.

Efficacy comparison between acupuncture and other modalities in the treatment of rotator cuff diseases: meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Among the 13 included articles, ten [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] provided complete functional score data before and after treatment. The primary scoring methods included the Constant-Murley Shoulder Assessment (CM), the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI), and the University of California at Los Angeles End-Result Score (UCLA).…”

“…Due to differences in the scoring criteria, all outcomes were represented using stan-dardized mean differences, as detailed in Supplementary Tables 1, 2, 3. Ten of those articles [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59] reported shortterm (0 to 1 month) functional score changes, with high heterogeneity (P < 0.001, I 2 = 89.8%); eight [50-53, 56, 57, 59, 60] reported medium-term (1 to 3 months) enhanced heterogeneous functional score changes (P < 0.001, I 2 = 93.0%); and four [50,52,53,56] reported long-term (P < 0.001, I 2 = 89.2%) functional score changes. Therefore, random effects models were used for data synthesis.…”

“…Among the 13 articles, nine [13,50,51,54,[57][58][59][60][61] provided complete pain score data before and after treatment. The two scoring methods used were the visual analogue scale (VAS) or numerical rating scale (NRS), internationally recognized single-dimensional pain intensity assessment methods; the outcomes were represented using weighted mean differences.…”

Cerebral cortical hemodynamic metrics to aid in assessing pain levels? A pilot study of functional near-infrared spectroscopy

“…Analgesic treatment is performed using a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation analgesic bracelet based on Chinese medicine wrist and ankle acupuncture (E-WAA) (Shi et al, 2020). It is a small portable non-invasive electrical stimulation device that can be worn on the wrist or ankle with Velcro to relieve or even 10.3389/fnins.2023.1136820 treat pain in the human body, and its subjective analgesic effect has been demonstrated in several studies (Song et al, 2021;Du et al, 2022;Shi et al, 2022). The treatment site chosen for this experiment was the upper 5 area on the left hand, identified by the mechanism of WAA in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) (Figure 1B).…”

“…The efficacy of medications such as morphine in relieving pain has been validated through objective techniques such as fMRI and fNIRS (Peng et al, 2018c). Despite this, the effectiveness of E-WAA has been demonstrated in several studies (Yang et al, 2019;Song et al, 2021;Du et al, 2022), its analgesic mechanism remains to be explored.…”