Clinical Observations on Short Thrust Needling Treatment for Osteoporotic Vertebral Compression Fractures / 上海针灸杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the therapeutic effect of short thrust needling on osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.Method Seventy-two patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures were randomly allocated to observation and controlgroups, 36 cases each.In the observation group,short thrust needlingwas used with lifting-thrusting and twirling manipulation; the bone was rubbed with the needle tip up anddownin the place near the bone; reinforcing manipulation was performed for nine times after arrival of qi.The control group received conventional acupuncture with uniform reinforcing-reducing manipulation.Both groups were treated four weeks as a course for two courses.The Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) score and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI)score were recorded in the two groups before and after four and eight weeks of treatment.The clinical therapeutic effects were evaluated.Result The total efficacy rate was 94.4% in the observation group.Which was higher than 66.7% in the control group (P<0.05).Boththe VAS and ODI scores were lower after treatment compared with before (P<0.05) and decreased significantly more in the observation than in the control group(P<0.05).Conclusion Short thrust needling canmarkedly relieve the pain and dysfunction in patients with osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures.Its the rapeutic effect is significantly better than that of conventional acupuncture.