Clinical Research In Acupuncture Injection Therapy With Danhong Injection To Treat Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy (CSM)

Objective: Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy (CSM) is a diseasecharacterized in progressive degenerative quadriplegia. The disease oftenresults in irreversible nerve damage, also known as paralysis cervicalspondylosis, which is caused by the degeneration of the cervical spine. Thedegeneration of the spine will lead to spinal cord compression or (and)obstacles in spinal cord blood supply. Meanwhile, it will cause the dysfunctionof the spinal cord. The symptoms of CSM are usually severe and common inCervical Spondylosis.In Chinese Medicine, CSM is treated as “Spastic Disorder” and“Atrophy”, the body location of which is at the spine and which is caused byliver and kidney deficiency, chronic fatigue, injury and discordance of naturalenergy and blood in the neck. Clinical data in recent years shows the numberof people suffering from CSM is on the rise year by year and people whodiagnosed with CSM are younger. CSM is a serious threat to people’s healthand their daily lives. Therefore, the treatment of this disease has beenhighlighted by scholars at home and abroad. Nowadays, the treatment of CSMincludes surgery and non-surgical treatment. But because of surgery can bringtrauma and can be difficult to operate, many patients are not willing toundergo surgeries. Moreover, the efficacy of surgeries is not satisfactory in thelong run. In non-surgical treatment, Chinese medicine treatment is veryeffective, which use traditional Chinese medicine internally or externally. Italso includes acupuncture, traction, massage etc. There needs further researchin intravenous acupuncture injection with herbal extracts. Under the guidanceof Chinese medicine theories and with clinical observance of patients in HebeiChinese Medicine Hospital, this thesis will study the effectiveness and safety of the treatment of CMS using acupuncture injection with Danhong injection.It will further discuss the mechanism of CMS so as to improve the treatmentof CMS and its effectiveness.Methodology: Diagnostic criteria of CMS:(1) clinical manifestations ofthe cervical spinal cord injury;(2) medical imaging examination showedstenosis, cervical degenerative change;(3) exclusion of amyotrophyamyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spinal canal tumor, peripheral neuritis, and otherdiseases. Eighty cases of CMS patients from Hebei CM hospital are collectedand they are divided into treatment and control groups without any particularorder. Each group has40cases.Treatment group: Use acupuncture injection at Acupuncture pointcorresponding to the neck and spine. At the same time, infuse Danhonginjection into the vein.Control group: simply infuse Danhong injection in the vein. Treatmentgroup and control group patients were treated once a day for two weeks andone week is one treatment period. According to the spinal cord functionimprovement rate, clinical efficacy is divided into two classes. Effective:spinal cord function improvement rate≥25%; not effective: spinal cordfunction improvement rate <25%. Spinal cord function improvement rate=(after treatment points-before treatment points)/(40points-before treatmentpoints)×100%.The treatment group and control group patients’ gender, age, course ofthe disease, incentives for the statistical analysis as well as the score of thebefore and after treatment and clinical curative effect comparison.Results:1Using cervical spondylosis spinal functional status assessment method,the scores of patients from the treatment group changed significantly (p<0.001), which shows the effectiveness of acupuncture injection with Danhonginjection in improving the signs and symptoms of CSM.2The score（sp＜0.05）of patients from both treatment and control groupsimproved significantly, which shows the effectiveness of Danhong injection. 3The treatment group scores lowers in the spine cord functionimprovement rate (p<0.01) than that of the control group, which demonstratesthat acupuncture injection with Danhong injection is more effective thanDanhong injection.4Of the40cases in treatment group,38were effective, which accountsfor90.00%; whereas in the control group,28were effective, and the totaleffective rate was70.00%.Conclusion: Acupuncture injection therapy with Danhong injection isvery effective in treating CSM and there is significant improvement in clinicalsigns and symptoms. It is more effective than using Danhong injection alone.This clinical research fills the gap in icupuncture injection with Danhonginjection to treat CSM both at home and abroad. In the field of traditionalChinese medicine, acupuncture injection in combination with Danhonginjection is a new way to treat CSM and it provides a reliable therapy inclinical treatment of the disease.