Clinical study of Acupoint Pressing Therapy of Zang and Fu for the children with functional constipation and food retention of heat patterns / 国际中医中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe the clinical efficacy, safety and recurrence rate of Acupoint Pressing Therapy of Zang and Fu in the treatment of children with functional constipation.Methods:A total of 120 children with functional constipation form the First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine from January 2020 to June 2021, were divided into two groups randomly, 80 in observation group and 40 in control group. Both groups were treated with routin therpy. The observation group was treated with Acupoint pressing therapy of Zang and Fu, and the control group was treated with Xiaoerhuashi syrup. Both groups were treated for 2 weeks. Before and after treatment, TCM syndromes were scored, daily defecation and spontaneous defecation response were recorded, and the efficacy was evaluated. The patients were followed up for 4 weeks and the recurrence was recorded.Results:Seventh and 14th day after treatment, the effective rates of TCM syndrome efficacy in the observation group were 87.5% (70/80) and 92.5% (74/80), and 62.5% (25/40) and 80.0% (32/40) in the control group. The scores of main symptoms, secondary syndromes and total scores of TCM syndromes in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group ( P<0.01 or P<0.05) at 7th day ( t values were 2.90, 2.77 and 3.93) and 14th day ( t values were 4.24, 5.95 and 6.27) after treatment. The effective rates of the observation group was 83.8% (67/80) and that of the control group was 65.0% (26/40). The difference between the two groups was statistically significant ( χ2=5.38, P=0.020). In the follow-up, the recurrence rate of the observation group was 9.5% (7/74) and that of the control group was 18.8% (6/32). There was no significant difference between two groups ( χ2=1.79, P=0.181). Conclusion:Acupoint Pressing Therapy of Zang and Fu has the advantages of curative effect, low recurrence rate and safety in the treatment of children's functional constipation.