Clinical Studies On Efficacy Of Wrist-ankle Acupuncture In Relieving The Moderate And Advanced Pain Of The Patients With Hepatocarcinoma

Objects: To assess the analgesic efficacy of the wrist-ankle acupuncture in the treatment of the moderate and severe pain of liver cancer ; observe the side effect of MS Contin and wrist-ankle acupuncture and the characteristic of their analgesia.;and investigate the mechanism of the analgesia of the wrist-ankle acupuncture in treating the moderate and severe pain caused by heaptocarcinoma. Methods: 1.Single center was used based on the degree ranging from moderate to severe pain caused by liver cancer.94 patients were divided into 5groups randomly. 40paitients (median age 49.8) with moderate pain were divied into 2 groups, including wristle-ankle acupuncture and codine treatment. 54 Paitients with severe cancer pain were divied into 3 groups. 16 patients were treated by wristle-ankle acupuncture. 18paitients were treated by wrist-ankle acupuncture combined with MS Contin(W&M). 20patients were treated with MS Contin. the needle lying under the point lasts for 10-12 hours,paitients were treated with analgesic drugs according to their pain degree whose dose taken orally was the smallest amount from the begining.Number evaluation was used to assay pain level and changes, relief rate,effective period,optimal relief time. Side effects of the group treated with W&M and the group treated with MScontion ,and the reoccurance rate of the pain during the observation days of each group were evaluated respectively. Inadittion,each group had no statistic significance in ages,sex, cause(P>0.05),and each group had 10 days of duration in treatment and the observation followed were10 days. 2.The points of wrist-ankle acupuncture were based on the pain location in the body associated with original disease.3.The different analagesic effect of the wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy to the different type ,location of the pain was evaluated by pain relief rate befor and after the treatment.4.The plasma beta-endorphin and substance P of the above patients befor and after the treatment were examined through radioimmumassay respectively to provide the basis for analgesic effect . Results:1.Relief rate:The pain relief rate of the two moderate pain group(wristle-ankle acupuncture and codine treatment)were 85%,and 63% respectively.The pain relief rate of the three severe pain group(wristle-ankle acupuncture,W&M and MS Contin)were 63%, 83.33%,85% respectively.2.The pain relief characteristic including start working time,the effective period,optimal relief time of the wristle-ankle acupuncture showed that it had shorter time start, longer effective period than the therapy taking drug orally, and had no statistic significance in optimal relief time. It had more advantage in treating acute pain(100%) than chronic pain(62.5%), and had less side effect occurence in number than the group taking MS Contin orally independently. In addition, it had long-term pain relief time after the 10 days treatment in the moderate pain. The contents of the paitients' plasma β-endorphin and substance P before and after treatment were29.4±22.57 ,67.47±40.34 pg/ml and 42.26±13.00,30.92±8.34 pg/ml respectively. Conclusion The present studies confirm the analgesic efficacy of the wrist-ankle acupuncture therapy to the cancer pain caused by heptocarcinoma,especially to the moderate pain .