Analysis of Regularities in Clinical Point Selection for Acupuncture Treatment of Gouty Arthritis / 上海针灸杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To statistically analyze clinical research literature on acupuncture treatment of gouty arthritis, explore regularities in its point selection and provide a basis for clinical point selection and reasonable point combination.Method Gouty arthritis, acupuncture, warm needling moxibustion, electroacupuncrue and fire needling were used as key words. January 1990 to May 2014 China HowNet (CNKI) full-text database and Wanfang academic periodical full-text database were searched to retrieve, sort out and analyze clinical literature on acupuncture treatment of gouty arthritis at home and abroad. Acupoints included in the literature were sorted out. Statistical analysis was made of the categories, meridians, use frequencies and positions of selected acupoints.Result One hundred and thirty-five articles with a total of 120 acupoints were included. From the analysis of point selection, the acupoints most frequently used to treat gouty arthritis were, arranged in order, Taichong (91), Sanyinjiao (87), Zusanli (80), Yinlingquan (58), Quchi (52), Taixi (51), Yanglingquan (45), Xuehai (44), Taibai (44) and Hegu (44). From the analysis of pertaining meridians, the meridians of more frequently used acupoints were the spleen meridian of foot-taiyin (323), the stomach meridian of foot-yangming (209), the large intestine of hand-yangming (143), the liver meridian of foot-jueyin (140), the gallbladder meridian of foot-shaoyang (134), the kidney meridian of foot-shaoyin (84) and the bladder meridian of foot-taiyang (80). From the analysis of point selection from different places, the part where acupoints were most distributed was the lower limb.Conclusion For acupuncture treatment of gouty arthritis, local and along-meridian point selections are main ones, selected points are relatively scattered and often located in the lower limb, and point selection is partly combined with syndrome differentiation, which provide a clinical reference.