Observation On The Effects Of Electroacupuncture With Scraping Therapy On Cervicoshoulder Myofascial Pain Syndrome

BackgroundThe Cervicoshoulder Myofascial Pain Syndrome (CMPS) is a common and frequently-occurring disease in clinics. In recent years, the environment is changing, such as working and living in the air-conditioning environment or working at the desk for a long time, extensive use of computers while lack of exercise, there are two trends of CMPS that the sick is younger and younger and the incidence of CMPS is increasing. It is easy to relieve the discomfort and cure in clinics, but it is also easy to recur because the habit and the environment is involuntary. CMPS belongs to "BiBing" in traditional Chinese medicine, and was referred such as "pain in the back", "pain in the neck", "pain in the shoulder and back". Prolonged discomfort leads to secondary problems, such as the damage of the soft tissue extends to the physiological changes of the nerve function or structural changes of skeleton; prolonged suffering can cause psychological problems, such as somatisation, anxiety ect.. The condition can affect people in the life of living, working and study. So finding out a effective and easy-to-use therapy is necessary.ObjectiveComparing the effects of electroacupuncture with scraping therapy and simple electroacupuncture on cervicoshoulder myofascial pain syndrome (CMPS), we evaluate the effects objectively and attempt to judge the role of scraping therapy playing in treating on cervicoshoulder myofascial pain syndrome, in order to afford the effective treatment of TCM to cure and prevention of CMPS under the evidence-based medicine.MethodSixty researchers of CMPS, selected from the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department of the First Affiliated hospital of Guangzhou University of TCM and volunteers from March 2010 to March 2011, were randomly assigned to electroacupuncture with scraping therapy group (the treatment group) and electroacupuncture group (the control group) in a ratio of 1:1. Researchers had electroacupuncture in QOD, while the scraping therapy twice a week, for two weeks as one course of treatment. The results were evaluated before and after the treatment by the symptoms and signs form, Northwick Park neck pain Questionnaire (NPQ), Visual Analogous Scale (VAS) scores of Simple Form of McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ), and all the side-effects and adverse reaction were recorded. The data was analyzed by SPSS v16.0 software.ResultsAnalyzing the pre-treatment data of the two groups in age, gender distribution, disease duration, signs and symptoms form, Northwick Park neck pain Questionnaire (NPQ) and Visual Analogous Scale (VAS) scores, it showed that there were not significantly different (P>0.05).After treatment, according to the symptoms and signs form, the significant differences between the effects of the treatment group and the control group was observed (P<0.01) by the ANOVA test, the date showed the effects of the treatment group is better than the control group, especially on releasing the stiffness and heaviness of the cervicoshoulder area (P<0.01). Analyzing the data of the scores of NPQ, the effects of two groups were clear, there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between them by the ANOVA test, although the data showed the treatment group was better. There was significant difference between the treatment group and the control group in the effects of the relief of pain (P<0.05), and it showed the treatment group was better than the control group on the basis of the evaluation of VAS scores. Adopting the Nimodipine method to evaluate the effects of the symptoms and signs,5 cases of clinical cure were observed (the rate is 16.7%),24 significant effective (80.0%), and 1 effective(3.3%) with none invalid in the treatment group, while there was none clinical cure and invalid,13 significant effective (43.3%) with 17 effective (56.7%) in the control group, the total effective of the two groups is the same, both 100%, but significant difference was observed (P<0.01) by the Ridit method. During the treatment course, there was no side-effect and adverse reaction.ConclusionAccording to the results, the study shows that the effects of Electroacupuncture with scraping therapy on cervicoshoulder myofascial pain syndrome was clear, and was better than the simple electroacupuncture group. The study also shows that the metheod of electroacupuncture and scraping therapy is safe and easy to be accepted.