Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 6, 2019; 7(23): 3964-3970
Published online Dec 6, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i23.3964
Therapeutic efficacy of acupuncture combined with neuromuscular joint facilitation in treatment of hemiplegic shoulder pain
Yan-Hui Wei, De-Chao Du, Ke Jiang
Yan-Hui Wei, Department of Rehabilitation, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210028, Jiangsu Province, China
De-Chao Du, Department of Rehabilitation, Nanjing Red Cross Hospital, Nanjing 210028, Jiangsu Province, China
Ke Jiang, Department of Rehabilitation Physiotherapy, Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Integration of Chinese and Western Medicine, Nanjing 210028, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Wei YH and Du DC contributed equally to this manuscript; Wei YH, Du DC, and Jiang K designed the research and wrote and revised the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine.
Informed consent statement: All patients in this study gave informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ke Jiang, MD, Chief Physician, Department of Rehabilitation Physiotherapy, Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Integration of Chinese and Western Medicine, No. 100, Cross Street, Hongshan Road, Nanjing 210028, Jiangsu Province, China. shanchuanbaobei@163.com
Received: September 8, 2019
Peer-review started: September 8, 2019
First decision: November 11, 2019
Revised: October 19, 2019
Accepted: November 23, 2019
Article in press: November 23, 2019
Published online: December 6, 2019
Processing time: 88 Days and 23 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Stroke is a type of cerebrovascular disease with high prevalence, mortality, and onset of disability. As a neurodevelopmental therapy, neuromuscular joint facilitation (NJF) is widely used in the treatment of orthopedic and neurological disorders in the clinical practice. It is mainly used for central nervous system diseases or orthopedic diseases, movement disorders, and pain rehabilitation. According to related studies, NJF can also be used as a rehabilitation treatment in patients with hemiplegic shoulder pain (HSP).

AIM

To investigate the clinical efficacy of acupuncture combined with NJF in patients with HSP.

METHODS

Forty patients with HSP were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group. The treatment group was treated with acupuncture combined with NJF and the control group was treated with acupuncture alone. All patients were assessed by using the visual analogue scale (VAS), Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA), Barthel index (BI), and passive range of motion (PROM) before and after the training. All the clinical data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 statistical software.

RESULTS

There was no statistical difference in the general characteristics between the two groups. In the terms of duration of treatment, age, and pre-treatment indicators, the two groups were comparable (P > 0.05). After the treatment, VAS, PROM, BI, and FMA scores were significantly improved in the two groups of patients (P < 0.05). The VAS, PROM and FMA scores were significantly higher in the treatment group than in the control group (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in BI scores between the two groups (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Both acupuncture alone and acupuncture combined with NJF in the treatment of HSP are effective, and can improve the clinical symptoms of patients. Acupuncture combined with NJF can improve the upper limb motor function, relieve pain, and increase joint mobility in patients with HSP. The combination therapy is better than acupuncture alone. However, there is no significant difference in improving the score of patients’ self-care ability.

Keywords: Acupuncture; Neuromuscular joint facilitation; Hemiplegic shoulder pain; Visual analogue scale; Fugl-Meyer assessment; Therapy

Core tip: Shoulder pain is one of the common complications in stroke patients. Neuromuscular joint facilitation (NJF) is a therapeutic exercise which is used to improve the movement of the joint. Acupuncture is a key component of traditional treatment to relieve pain. The present research studied whether the efficacy of acupuncture combined with NJF was superior to acupuncture alone for hemiplegic shoulder pain (HSP). The results showed that the combined therapy of NJF and acupuncture is better than acupuncture alone in the treatment of HSP.