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
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Hemiplegic shoulder pain (HSP), a common sequela of stroke, causes damage to patients’ movements and quality of life. Both traditional acupuncture and neuromuscular joint facilitation (NJF) help alleviate shoulder pain and inflammation associated with bursitis and/or tendonitis. However, the combination of the two therapies was seldom applied in the clinical practice.

Research motivation

The present study combined acupuncture with NJF technology to treat HSP, with an aim to provide a new treatment choice for this disease.

Research objectives

To study whether the efficacy of acupuncture combined with NJF is superior to acupuncture alone.

Research 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. In addition, patients in the treatment group were also trained to do exercises including articular surface movement and extension-abduction-internal rotation. The efficacy of the therapies was 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.

Research results

After the treatment, the scores of VAS, FMA, and PROM were better in patients receiving neuromuscular joint facilitation combined with acupuncture than in patients only receiving acupuncture. However, there was no significant difference in BI scores between the two groups after the treatment.

Research conclusions

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.

Research perspectives

Multidisciplinary treatment plan should be further studied in patients with HSP.