Hidden Factors In Acupuncture For Facial Paralysis Treatments

Objective:To determine if frequency of treatment,total number of treatments,and other factors could influence a patient's recovery rate for facial paralysis.Method:Observe acupuncture treatments in the Chinese public hospital setting for facial paralysis for a period of two months.Note how treatments are administered,frequency of treatment,patient satisfaction with treatment,and evaluate progress.P.R.China Group started with n=21 patients,but only n=17 were used in study(n=11 males;n=6 females).Compared those results with a retrospective analysis from patients previously treated for facial paralysis in USA from various private clinical practices.USA Group used n=7(n=2 males;n=5 females)for analysis.Used the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System to score and evaluate patient progress before and after their course of acupuncture treatments.Results:P.R.China Group analysis of Sunnybrook scores before and after treatment with Wilcoxon match-pair signed rank shows P.R.China acupuncture intervention is effective.USA Group analysis with paired sample t-test showed with n=7,a correlation of 0.860 and significance of 0.013,where p<0.05.USA acupuncture intervention is effective.Discussion:Despite differences in cultural perception and expectation,differences in treatment models(frequency of treatment within a week and month),patients in both groups still received improved benefit.However,only patients in PRC Group continued to improve to full functionality due to their ability to receive more frequent treatment per week and per month.Patients in USA Group only received treatment once a week for an average of one month(4 treatments total).Daily acupuncture treatments would not appear to affect overall recovery rate;however,only weekly acupuncture treatments would not appear to be as overall effective.Acupuncture every other day or every third day might just be as effective as daily acupuncture.Conclusion:Acupuncture treatments,despite differences in treatment modalities and methods,will benefit patients suffering facial paralysis.