A novel taping therapy for pain after arthroscopic shoulder surgery: study protocol for a randomised controlled pilot trial.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, the number of arthroscopic shoulder surgeries has increased given that the intervention is minimally invasive. However, postoperative pain is one of the most common symptoms of patients who undergo arthroscopic surgery. Although pharmacological treatments and brachial plexus blocks for reducing pain are currently used, the adherence rate of interventions is low, and adverse effects often occur. Chimsband, made up of silver and optic fibres, is a novel taping therapy that stimulates patients' acupoints and is expected to relieve pain with few adverse effects. The aim of this study is to explore the effectiveness of Chimsband to relieve pain following arthroscopic shoulder surgery. METHODS/DESIGN: This is a randomised, parallel, controlled, exploratory clinical trial. Thirty participants who undergo arthroscopic shoulder surgery will be randomly allocated to an intervention or a control group. Both groups will receive 10 sessions of interferential current therapy within a period of 2 weeks, while the intervention group will additionally receive taping therapy after undergoing physical therapy. Two follow-up visits will be scheduled after the last treatment session. The primary outcome variable will be the difference in the visual analogue scale (VAS) scores between baseline and first follow-up evaluation after the end of 10 treatment sessions. The secondary outcomes will be VAS at the end of the second week, shoulder pain and disability index, range of motion, VAS while sleeping, questionnaire of blood stasis pattern identification at two follow-up visits, and number of bands used per visit. Outcomes will be evaluated at baseline, 2 weeks from visit 1 (+ within 6 days) after commencement, and at 4 weeks from visit 1 (+ within 6 days) follow-up. DISCUSSION: This study will be the first clinical trial to explore the effect and safety of Chimsband on postoperative shoulder pain. It would provide clinical evidence to conduct further taping therapy studies for relieving musculoskeletal pain. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Korean Clinical Trial Registry, KCT0002355 . Registered on 13 June 2017.

Chronic depression treated successfully with novel taping therapy: a new approach to the treatment of depression.

INTRODUCTION: Despite improved research in the treatment, depression remains difficult to treat. Till date, successful treatment of depression using taping therapy has not been known yet. We report cases where patients with severe depressive symptoms were successfully treated by taping therapy, a new approach. METHODS: In case 1, a patient was taking several psychiatric medications for 10 years and admitted often to the psychiatric hospital with a leaning head, flexible legs, and nearly closed eyes; in case 2, a patient after a hysterectomy complained with heart palpitations, depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors, insomnia, and gastrointestinal problems; and in case 3, a patient with complaints of adverse effects from antidepressant medications had suicidal thoughts frequently. The medical tapes were placed on acupoints, trigger points, and pain points found by finger pressing examination in the chest, sides, and upper back of the patients. RESULTS: In case 1, the patient started weeping immediately after the first treatment. He discontinued psychiatric drugs and returned to baseline functioning after 2 months. In case 2, the patient felt at ease showing decreased palpitation immediately after the first treatment, and after 1 week, she quit medications. In case 3, the patient experienced a sense of calmness following the first treatment and recovered from her symptoms after 2 weeks. CONCLUSION: These results suggest the following key points: examination of acupoints and trigger points of chest, sides, and upper back is useful in the assessment of depression; regulating bioelectric currents on these points is helpful in the treatment of depression; and depression can be treated successfully with taping therapy.

A novel taping therapy for chronic insomnia: a report on two cases.

OBJECTIVES: Here, we report two cases of chronic insomnia treated satisfactorily by re-using of patients' bioelectricity. PATIENTS: First was a 46 years old male who had taken drugs for several years and depression drug for one year. He had heart beat and felt pressure pain on almost of chest. Second was a 64 years old male who had taken drugs for one year. In spite of the medication, he could not sleep at all and had glint eyes. INTERVENTIONS: Method of treatment is to put the medical tape (Chimsband) on acupoints and pressure pain points in the chest, which can be traced down by finger pressing examination. RESULTS: In the first case, the patient escaped from the medications after three weeks. Following seven weeks, depression was reduced remarkably. In the second case, the glint of eyes returned to normal after two treatments. After three treatments, the sleeping time was lengthened to 4h. CONCLUSIONS: First, pressing chest can be used for tracing neurological symptoms; second, when the bioelectricity of the patient reacts to Chimsband, the symptoms could be ameliorated; third, there is a relationship between treating the neurological symptoms such as insomnia and attenuating pressure pain.

Potent inhibition of Lewis lung cancer growth by heyneanol A from the roots of Vitis amurensis through apoptotic and anti-angiogenic activities.

Vitis amurensis Rupr. (Vitaceae) has long been used in Chinese/Oriental herbal medicine for the treatment of cancer, but its active compounds and mechanisms of action have not been well studied. To this end, we isolated from its root heyneanol A (HA), which is a tetramer of resveratrol (RES), and established the in vivo antitumor activity of HA using the mouse Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) model. We administered HA and RES by daily intraperitonial injection to C57BL/6 mice that were subcutaneously inoculated with LLC cells. HA dose-dependently decreased tumor growth without any adverse effect on body weight and seemed more potent than RES. The tumor inhibitory effects were accompanied by a marked increase in tumor cell apoptosis detected by cleaved caspase-3 and TUNEL assays and decreased tumor cell proliferation index and tumor microvessel density, supporting the involvement of apoptotic and anti-angiogenic activities in the anticancer effects. We next investigated the cellular and molecular processes that mediate the apoptosis and anti-angiogenesis effects using cell culture models. Mechanistically, treatment of LLC cells in vitro with HA or RES significantly increased apoptotic cells. Both HA- and RES-induced cleavage of caspase-9 and caspase-3 and PARP were completely blocked by a pan caspase inhibitor, Z-VAD-FMK. In addition, HA and RES suppressed the basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF)-induced proliferation and capillary differentiation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells, and inhibited the binding of bFGF to its receptor in a test tube assay and the bFGF-induced vascularization of Matrigel plugs in vivo. Remarkably, HA was fairly stable in cell culture medium and did not undergo intracellular conversion to RES. Therefore, HA is an active anticancer compound that induces caspase-mediated cancer cell apoptosis and inhibits angiogenesis rivaling the potency of RES and merits further evaluation for cancer chemoprevention.