The Clinical Study On The Scapulohumeral Periarthritis Treated By Moxibustion With Warming Needles

ObjectiveFrom the point of view of clinical observation, to make objective evaluation of the treatment of moxibustion with warming needles on scapulohumeral periarthritis. And to gave essential basis for hunting the effective methods of treatment on scapulohumeral periarthritis in clinic. All this conduced to better application and spreading in clinic.MethodsAll 60 cases of patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis came from acupuncture clinic or in-patient ward of the No. 1 affiliated hospital of Guangzhou university of Chinese medicine. 60 cases was randomly divided into the treatment group (the moxibustion with warming needles group) and the control group (the needle group), each took 30 cases. As to the treatment group, we used moxibustion with warming needles adapted with corresponding channel point selection and point selection with differentiation of syndromes. The master points included jianyu, jianliao, jianzhen, binao, quchi, waiguan and hegu point. The adjunct acupuncture points included non-fixed point, tianzong, quyuan, lieque, tiaokou and chengshan. As to the point selection with differentiation of syndromes, for the wind arthralgia, we selected diaphragm shu and reservoir of blood. For the arthralgia aggravated by cold, we selected kidney shu and guanyuan. For the damp arthralgia, we selected yinlinquan.After routine sterilization on the acupuncture points, patients were treated with 1 to 3 chun long filiform needles. Patients with excess syndrome were treated with the reducing method and patients with deficiency syndrome were treated with reinforcing method. Then 2 cm long moxa roll was plugged into the needle handle on the master points. After that the moxa roll was lighted and the heating power conducted to the points through the needle body. We retained the needles for 30 minutes. Once a day, and a period of treatment was 10 times. As to the control group, the principle of choosing the point was the same as that in the treatment group. The master points, the adjunct acupuncture points, corresponding channel point selection, the point selection with differentiation of syndromes, the acupuncture method and the course of treatment was the same as that in the treatment group. The clinical therapeutic effect was evaluated after one course of treatment. The index of clinical observation included the mensuration of pain threshold and survival quality. The measuring method included skeleton symbol questionnaire table of ache (MPQ) and the mensuration of the activity of the shoulder joints that was including the ROM mensuration and ADL mensuration.ResultsAs to the treatment group, there was 11 male patients and 19 female patients and the average age was 57.33±7.1935 years' old. And that number was 10, 20, and 56.73±7.0414 in the control group. There was no significant difference in the gender, mean age and course of diseases (P＞0.05). This showed that there was comparability between the control group and the treatment group. For the index before therapy, statistic analyses showed that there was no significant difference between the control group and the treatment group (P＞0.05). As to the curative effect comparison, the apparently progressed patients, the progressed patients, improved patients and inefficient patients in the treatment group was 18, 10, 2 and 0, this number in the control group was 12, 8, 10 and 0 respectively. The cure rate and apparently effective rate in the treatment group and the control group was 93.33% and 66.67% respectively. The curative effect in the control group was better than that in the control group by Ridit analysis (P＜0.05). This illustrated that the curative effect on patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis by the method of moxibustion with warming needles was better than that by the method of the needle group.ConclusionClinical investigation showed that the first cause of scapulohumeral periarthritis was the deficiency of kidney and liver, deficiency of qi and blood and the malnutrition of the tendons. The inducement was wind cold dampness, chronic appendicitis and trauma of should. The pathogenesis was stagnation syndrome of qi and blood in meridian. In the treatment of acupuncture on scapulohumeral periarthritis, it could directly act on local channels to clear and activate the channels and collaterals and to dispel the exogenous pathogenic factors.The moxibustion could introduce the heat effect into the deep part of muscles so as to expel pathogenic wind, to promote the flow of qi by warming the channel, to eliminate damp and to diminish inflammation and alleviating pain. These two methods bring out the best in each other and easy to handle in practice. The combination of these two methods of treatment, which had better curative effect, could both dispel the pathogen and warmly dredge the channel so as to the aim of treatment this disease by looking into both its roots cause and symptoms. Its mechanism of action was related to the function of acupuncture and moxibustion in regulating the whole body status, improving local blood circulation and elevating body pain threshold.In one word, the treatment of moxibustion with warming needles on scapulohumeral periarthritis was an operable method in clinic.