Observation on clinical effects of acupuncture plus external medicine application for cervical radiculopathy / 针灸推拿医学（英文版）

ABSTRACT

Objective:To observe the clinical effects of acupuncture plus external medicine application for cervical radiculopathy.Methods:A total of 98 patients with cervical radiculopathy were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group based on the random digital table.The observation group (50 cases) was treated by acupuncture plus external medicine application and the control group (48 cases) was treated by acupuncture alone.The patients received the treatment every day.Ten sessions made a course.Cervical spondylosis symptom scale was used to assess the cases before and after the treatment.The clinical efficacy was compared between the two groups after the treatment.Results:The total effective rate was 98.1％ in the observation group versus 87.6％ in the control group with a statistically significant difference between the two groups (P＜0.05).The cure rate was 52.0％ in the observation group versus 18.8％ in the control group with a significant difference between the two groups (P＜0.05).There was no significant difference in the score of cervical spondylosis symptom scale between the two groups before the treatment (P＞0.05).It increased with a significant difference in both groups after the treatment (both P＜0.05),while a significant difference was found in the results between the two groups after the treatment (P＜0.05).Conclusion:Acupuncture plus external medicine application is more effective than acupuncture alone for treating cervical radiculopathy.The method also effectively improves the clinical symptoms.