Clinical Observations on Acupuncture Stage Treatment of Facial Spasm / 上海针灸杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To validate the therapeutic effect of acupuncture stage treatment on facial spasm and seek a better method for treating this disease. Method One hundred and forty patients were randomly allocated to stage treatment (50 cases), acupuncture (50 cases) and Western medicine (40 cases) groups. In the stage treatment group, treatment was divided into early, middle and late stages according to the patients’ duration of disease. Each stage provided acupuncture point injection of different medicine plus warm needling. The acupuncture group received conventional acupuncture with 1 hour retention of needles and the Western medicine group, oral administration of carbamazepine tablets, 0.2 g 3 times a day. After the completion of treatment course, a six-month follow-up was performed to determine no relapse or aggravation in the three groups and the therapeutic effects were evaluated using Cohen and Albert spasm grading criteria.Result The complete resolution rate was 56% (28/50) in the stage treatment group, 14.0% (7/50) in the acupuncture group and 20.0% (8/40) in Western medicine group. The complete resolution rate was significantly higher in the stage treatment group than in the acupuncture and Western medicine groups (P<0.05). The total efficacy rate was 100.0% (50/50) in the stage treatment group, 70.0% (35/50) in the acupuncture group and 60.0% (24/40) in the Western medicine group. The total efficacy rate was significantly higher in the stage treatment group than in the acupuncture and Western medicine groups (P<0.05).Conclusion Stage treatment has a marked effect on facial spasm.