Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jun 26, 2024; 12(18): 3444-3452
Published online Jun 26, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i18.3444
Clinical therapeutic effect of self-prescribed Sanhanchushi Tongbi on lumbar disc herniation
Cheng Yao, Bin He, Jie Zhou, Lin Xie
Cheng Yao, Lin Xie, Department of Orthopedics, The Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210028, Jiangsu Province, China
Cheng Yao, Bin He, Department of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu Province, China
Jie Zhou, Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210000, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Xie L designed the report; Yao C collected the patients’ clinical data and wrote the paper; He B and Zhou J analyzed the data.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardians provided written informed consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: The technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset are available from the corresponding author.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lin Xie, MD, Chief Physician, Department of Orthopedics, The Affiliated Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No. 100 Shizi Street, Hongshan Road, Nanjing 210028, Jiangsu Province, China. xielin074@163.com
Received: March 21, 2024
Revised: May 8, 2024
Accepted: May 10, 2024
Published online: June 26, 2024
Processing time: 88 Days and 19.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) commonly occurs during spinal surgery; LDH is on the increase in younger patients and is classified as "paralysis" and "back pain.” Sanhanchushi Tongbi (SPST) is a customized prescription. It disperses cold, relieves pain, removes cold from the meridians and viscera, and treats neuropathic pain. However, few studies have investigated its mechanism of pain relief.

AIM

To observe the clinical therapeutic effects on LDH treated with self-prescribed SPST.

METHODS

A total of 211 patients with LDH syndrome were divided into two groups: 107 patients in the control group were treated with conventional massage combined with traction, and 104 patients in the observation group were treated with a combination of the control regimen and self-prescribed oral SPST. The patients were treated for 4 wk. Indices of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome score and serum inflammatory factor levels were measured.

RESULTS

After therapy, the TCM syndrome score in the observation group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The main symptoms, clinical signs, daily activities, and Japanese Orthopedic Association scores in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group after therapy (P < 0.05). The levels of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and C-reactive protein were lower in the observation group than in the control group (P < 0.05). In the observation group, superoxide dismutase levels were significantly higher, whereas malondialdehyde levels were significantly lower, compared with the control group (P < 0.05). The overall efficacy rate in the observation group was 96.15%, which was substantially higher than that in the control group (88.79%; P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Self-prescribed SPST can reduce the levels of inflammatory and pain-causing factors as well as lumbar pain in patients with LDH.

Keywords: Self-prescribed Sanhanchushi Tongbi, Lumbar disc herniation, Pain factors, Visual analog scale, Japanese Orthopedic Association scores, Inflammatory factor

Core Tip: A total of 211 patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH) syndrome and cold dampness due to kidney deficiency were divided into two groups based on therapeutic strategies to evaluate the clinical therapeutic effect of self-prescribed Sanhanchushi Tongbi (SPST) on LDH. Observation indicators, such as the Japanese Orthopedic Association and visual analog scale scores, were used to compare the therapeutic effects between the two groups. The study showed that SPST reduced inflammation, pain-causing factors, and lumbar pain in patients with LDH.