ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the clinical efficacy on lumbar spinal stenosis treated with deep puncture at Jiaji (EX-B 2) with round-sharp needle.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>One hundred and fifty cases of lumbar spinal stenosis were divided randomly into a deep puncture at Jiaji (EX-B 2) group (deep puncture group) and a conventional needling group, 75 cases in each one. In deep puncture group, the round-sharp needle was used to puncture Jiaji (EX-B 2) deeply to the nerve root in vertebral canal. Additionally, the conventional acupuncture with filiform needle was applied at the acupoints selected according to the symptoms, such as Shenshu (BL 23), Weizhong (BL 40), Zusanli (ST 36) and Zhibian (BL 54), etc. In conventional needling group, acupuncture with filiform needle was adopted at the acupoints as those in deep puncture group. The clinical symptom scores and efficacies of the patients in two groups were observed after 4 weeks treatment and 3 months of follow-up visit separately.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>After treatment and in follow-up visit, the clinical symptom scores all increased apparently for the patients in two groups (all P < 0.01). The result in deep puncture group was superior to that in conventional needling group (both P < 0.01). In deep puncture group, the total effective rates were 100.0% (75/75) and 96.0 (72/75) after treatment and in follow-up visit respectively, which were all superior to 92.0% (69/75) and 84.0% (63/75) in conventional needling group (both P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The deep puncture at Jiaji (EX-B 2) with round-sharp needle achieves superior efficacy as compared with the conventional needling therapy in treatment of lumbar spinal stenosis. The prognosis of it is better and the disease is hardly recurred.</p>