Report of the 9th, 10th Japan-Korea Workshop on Acupuncture and EBM / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

The Japan-Korea Workshop on Acupuncture and EBM is an academic exchange between the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (JSAM) and the Korean Acupuncture and Moxibustion Medical Society (KAMMS). The theme of the 9th and 10th Workshop was clinical practice guidelines (CPG). Three Korean and two Japanese speakers presented in the 9th Workshop held at Osaka, and two in each country did in the 10th at Jecheon, Korea. Since Korea has already developed some Korean Medicine CPGs, the present state and protocols for improvement process were reported. On the other hand, Japan has not developed such CPGs on acupuncture. The Japanese speakers therefore presented results of a survey on Japanese CPGs that include “acupuncture-moxibustion” as a treatment option and quality assessment of those CPGs. Although there are some differences on circumstances surrounding acupuncture practice between Japan and Korea, it was a good opportunity to obtain useful information for developing CPG on acupuncture in Japan and to discuss on this issue with Korean researchers preceding in this area. We reaffirmed the need for continued academic exchange between JSAM and KAAMS.

New Perspectives on the Origin of Korean Acupuncture: Based on Materials from Xiaoyingzi Tomb, Yanji and Neighbouring Region / 의사학

This article discusses the development of early acupuncture needles as demonstrated by the artifacts excavated from the Northern part of the Yanji district, Jilin, China, during the Japanese colonial era (reported in 1941). Numerous bone needles, stone needles, and other medical devices were found in the Xiaoyingzi excavation. The stone needles from Xiaoyingzi can be categorized into three grades, based on length, of 8cm, 12–15cm, and 18cm. A set of round stones for massage were also discovered, along with obsidian blades. These relics were carefully stored in the middle of the body in the stone coffin. In addition to Xiaoyingzi, stone needles were also excavated along the lower valley region of the Tuman (Tumen, 豆滿) River. These facts indicate that the owner was involved in medical practice, and that medical procedures using stone needles were quite popular at the time. This article carefully investigates that the relics have nothing to do with weaving textile or military use. Current research on the origin of acupuncture has been confined either to stone needles from the prehistoric age or to bronze needles, as well as to literature from the Warring States period to the Han China, during which acupuncture technology was considerably expanded. However, substantial knowledge on the “gap” between stone needles and metal needles has been procured through the analysis of Xiaoyingzi, Yanji. The findings of Xiaoyingzi are also significant in providing a more detailed reconstruction of the development of acupuncture in East Asia and emergence of acupuncture throughout history. A large amount of medical items (stone and bone needles, cases for needles, massage stone type bianshi, and etc.), have been excavated from Xiaoyingzi and other neighbouring sites, Along with geographic and ecological factors, this archeological data strongly suggests the medical tradition of using acupuncture needles was practiced around Tumen River basin in the Bronze Age (10th century B.C.).

Terapia combinada de homeopatía y Su Jok en pacientes con herpes zóster / Combined therapy of homeopathy and Su Jok in patients with herpes zoster

Se realizó un estudio cuasi-experimental, de intervención terapéutica, en 60 pacientes con herpes zóster, que asistieron a la consulta de Dermatología del Hospital General Docente "Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas Alfonso" de Santiago de Cuba, desde julio del 2012 hasta marzo del 2014, a fin de determinar la efectividad de la terapia combinada de homeopatía y Su Jok, para lo cual se utilizaron pruebas estadísticas paramétricas y no paramétricas. Los pacientes fueron asignados aleatoriamente a 2 grupos; en uno se aplicó el tratamiento convencional (grupo de control) y en el otro, la terapéutica alternativa (grupo de estudio) Se emplearon los remedios homeopáticos Sulphur, Apis mellifica, Rhus toxicodendron y Daphne mezereum; las semillas de cardo santo para estimular los puntos de correspondencia de Su Jok y los medicamentos aciclovir, dipirona y difenhidramina. En la serie predominaron las féminas (38,3 %), los grupos etarios de 45-64 años (58,3 %) y la forma clínica intercostal (38,3 %); asimismo, los síntomas más frecuentes fueron el dolor, prurito y ardor, con primacía del primero (51,6 %). La terapia combinada de Su Jok y homeopatía mostró resultados similares (83,3 %) a los obtenidos con la convencional (86,6 %) y produjo mínimos efectos adversos (6,6 %).

A quasi-experimental study of therapeutic intervention in 60 patients with herpes zoster who attended the Dermatology department of "Dr. Juan Bruno Zayas Alfonso" Teaching General Hospital in Santiago de Cuba was carried out from July, 2012 to March, 2014, in order to determine the effectiveness of the combined therapy of homeopathy and Su Jok, for which parametric and not parametric statistical tests were used. The patients were randomly assigned into 2 groups; in one the conventional treatment was applied (control group) and in the other, the alternative therapy (study group) . The homeopathic remedies Sulphur, Apis mellifica, Rhus toxicodendron and Daphne mezereum; the thistle saint seeds to stimulate the correspondence points of Su Jok and the medications acyclovir, dipirone and diphenhydramine were used. In the series females (38.3%), the age group 45-64 years (58.3%) and the intercostal clinical form (38.3%) prevailed; also, the most frequent symptoms were pain, pruritus and ardour, with primacy of the first one (51.6%). The combined Su Jok therapy and homeopathy showed similar results (83.3%) to those obtained with the conventional therapy (86.6%) and it produced minimum adverse effects (6.6%).

Review of Pragmatic Clinical Trials on Acupuncture / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

[Background] Over the last thirty years, majority of researches on clinical effectiveness of acupuncture have been explanatory (or experimental) randomized controlled trial. The benefits of acupuncture in clinical trials are stillcontroversial and most studies concluded that further control studies were required. Standardized combinations of acupuncture points for all the experimental subjects in various past studies have been criticized because such treatments do not reflect current routine clinical treatment.<BR>[Objective] This paper aims to review pragmatic clinical trials on the effect of acupuncture treatment and to develop the ideal clinical research methodology of acupuncture study.<BR>[Method] Clinical studies of acupuncture relevant with pragmatic or individualized trials were searched mainly in Pubmed and Science direct databases. All articles were fully reviewed by researchers, and data were evaluated by usage of a standardized form.<BR>[Results & Suggestion] Pragmatic acupuncture researches were tried for various symptoms (eg. low back pain, hypertension, depression during pregnancy, sleep quality in HIV disease, chronic poststroke leg spasticity, headache, etc). Individualized acupuncture treatments based on oriental disease pattern diagnosis reflexes practical treatments which is more effective than unified and fixed acupuncture treatments without any theoretical basis of oriental medical philosophy.<BR>[Conclusion] To overcome the controversies and limitations of past explanatory acupuncture trials, more individualized and tailored acupuncture trials with the theoretical basis of oriental medical diagnosis is highly recommended. Also clear definition and categorization of pattern identification should be established for further active clinical researches and applications of acupuncture.