Application of electroacupuncture in the prevention of low anterior resection syndrome after rectal cancer surgery

Table 1 Comparing the two groups’ low anterior resection syndrome scale grades before and following therapy (n = 50)

Groups	Before treatment			Following 1 wk of treatment			Following 2 wk of treatment			Following 4 wk of treatment
	No	Mild	Severe	No	Mild	Severe	No	Mild	Severe	No	Mild	Severe
Observational group	0	6	19	1	7	17	6	9	10	11	10	4
Control group	0	8	17	0	9	16	1	10	14	5	8	12
χ2	0.397			1.280			4.291			6.472
P value	0.529			0.527			0.117			0.039

Table 2 Before and after therapy low anterior resection syndrome scale score comparison of the two groups (points, mean ± SD)

Group	n	Before treatment	Following 1 wk of treatment	Following 2 wk of treatment	Following 4 wk of treatment
Observation group	25	36.89 ± 3.45	30.64 ± 5.23a	20.27 ± 2.15a	15.21 ± 3.62a
Control group	25	36.62 ± 3.59	33.37 ± 3.67a	28.34 ± 1.84a	21.84 ± 2.51a
T value		0.271	2.136	14.259	7.497
P value		0.756	0.038	< 0.001	< 0.001

^aP < 0.05 vs pretreatment and treated groups.

Table 3 Comparison of the pretreatment and posttreatment scores on the Wexner anal incontinence scale (points, mean ± SD)

Group	n	Before treatment	After 1 wk of treatment	After 2 wk of treatment	After 4 wk of treatment
Observation group	25	10.45 ± 1.27	8.33 ± 2.21a	5.08 ± 0.89a	4.37 ± 0.74a
Control group	25	10.13 ± 1.48	9.56 ± 1.84a	7.22 ± 0.97a	6.52 ± 0.89a
T value		0.820	2.139	8.128	9.288
P value		0.416	0.038	< 0.001	< 0.001

^aP < 0.05 vs pretreatment and treated groups.

Table 4 Comparison of Xu Zhongfa’s 5-item, 10-point scale scores in both groups (points, mean ± SD)

Group	n	Before treatment	After 1 wk of treatment	After 2 wk of treatment	After 4 wk of treatment
Observation group	25	6.21 ± 0.88	7.75 ± 0.67a	8.93 ± 0.65a	9.12 ± 0.57a
Control group	25	6.05 ± 0.93	6.94 ± 0.74a	8.02 ± 0.73a	8.63 ± 0.44a
T value		0.625	4.057	4.655	3.402
P value		0.535	0.709	< 0.001	< 0.001

^aP < 0.05 vs pretreatment and treated groups.

Table 5 Comparison of anal pressure indicators between observational and control groups (mmHg, mean ± SD)

Group	n	Anal resting pressure		Rectal defecation threshold		Maximum tolerance volume
		Before treatment	After 4 wk of treatment	Before treatment	After 4 wk of treatment	Before treatment	After 4 wk of treatment
Observation al group	25	49.51 ± 3.53	59.73 ± 2.12a	85.32 ± 3.34	115.54 ± 5.62a	122.35 ± 9.84	134.12 ± 7.82a
Control group	25	49.34 ± 3.62	54.41 ± 2.86a	85.09 ± 3.62	107.31 ± 6.49a	120.18 ± 10.45	128.36 ± 11.41a
T value		0.168	7.472	0.233	4.793	0.756	2.082
P value		0.867	0.000	0.816	0.000	0.453	0.043

^aP < 0.05 vs pretreatment and treated groups.

Table 6 Comparison of the quality of life scores before and after treatment (points, mean ± SD)

Group	n	Before treatment	Following 1 wk of treatment	Following 2 wk of treatment	Following 4 wk of treatment
Observational group	25	60.52 ± 8.55	68.27 ± 8.54a	80.81 ± 6.92a	85.56 ± 5.26a
Control group	25	60.23 ± 8.67	64.18 ± 7.21a	73.35 ± 7.88a	78.64 ± 4.33a
T value		0.119	2.277	3.557	5.079
P value		0.906	0.027	0.001	< 0.001

^aP < 0.05 vs pretreatment and treated groups.

Table 7 Comparing the occurrence of adverse events between the two groups

Group	n	Local bleeding (cases)	Dizziness (cases)	Fever (cases)	Total incidence (%)
Observation group	25	1	1	0	8.00
Control group	25	0	1	0	4.00
χ2					0.355
P value					0.552