Clinical Observation of Scalp Acupuncture in Treating Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy / 上海针灸杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To reveal the therapeutic efficacy of scalp acupuncture plus rehabilitation training in treating spastic cerebral palsy, by evaluating the Comprehensive Function for the Disabled Children and modified Ashworth Scale (MAS) before and after the intervention.Method Sixty patients with spastic cerebral palsy were divided into a treatment group and a control group by following a single-blind randomized design, 30 cases in each group. The treatment group was intervened by scalp acupuncture plus rehabilitation training, while the control group was by rehabilitation training alone. The improvements of comprehensive function and muscle tension, as well as the correlation between age and therapeutic efficacy were observed respectively after 2-month and 4-month treatment. Result There were significant differences in comparing the muscle tension score between the two groups respectively after2-month and 4-month treatment (P<0.01); the total effective rate was 86.7% in the treatment group versus 63.3% in the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05); in the treatment group, there was a significant difference in comparing the therapeutic efficacy between different age groups (P<0.05).Conclusion Scalp acupuncture plus rehabilitation training can produce a better result than rehabilitation alone in treating spastic cerebral palsy; the younger the patients, the better the prognosis.