Clinical Trials Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 26, 2020; 8(24): 6282-6295
Published online Dec 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i24.6282
Effects of different acupuncture methods combined with routine rehabilitation on gait of stroke patients
Yan-Tao Lou, Jing-Jing Yang, Yu-Fei Ma, Xi-Cheng Zhen
Yan-Tao Lou, Xi-Cheng Zhen, Department of Human Sports Science, Shenyang Sport University, Shenyang 110102, Liaoning Province, China
Jing-Jing Yang, Department of Medical Nursing, Jiyuan Vocational and Technical College, Jiyuan 459000, Henan Province, China
Yu-Fei Ma, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Liaoning Thrombus Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, Shenyang 110102, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: All authors made significant contributions to the research in this study, and approved the submitted version of the manuscript and the authorship list; Zhen XC and Lou YT contributed to data acquisition, interpretation, and analysis; Zhen XC contributed to writing of the manuscript; Lou YT contributed to critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; Yang JJ and Ma YF contributed to conception and design of the study, and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; Yang JJ contributed to final approval of the submitted manuscript.
Supported by Research Scholarship of the Educational Department of Liaoning Province, No. LJC2019ST04.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Liaoning Thrombus Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine.
Clinical trial registration statement: This registration policy applies to prospective, randomized, controlled trials only.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xi-Cheng Zhen, MSc, Professor, Department of Human Sports Science, Shenyang Sport University, No. 36 Jinqian Songdong Road, Sujiatun District, Shenyang 110102, Liaoning Province, China. zhenxicheng@163.com
Received: September 1, 2020
Peer-review started: September 1, 2020
First decision: September 13, 2020
Revised: September 26, 2020
Accepted: October 20, 2020
Article in press: October 20, 2020
Published online: December 26, 2020
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

For most patients with stroke, routine gait training does not effectively restore normal gait.

Research motivation

To provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the rehabilitation of walking ability in stroke patients.

Research objectives

To investigate the effects of eye acupuncture retaining needle and body acupuncture combined with routine rehabilitation on walking ability and plantar pressure in patients with stroke recovery.

Research methods

Thirty-two stroke patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, with 16 patients each. Both groups were treated by routine rehabilitation. On the basis of this, the experimental group was treated by eye acupuncture retaining needle, and the control group was treated by body acupuncture. Before and after 4 wk of treatment, gait tests were performed on both groups by kinematic and plantar pressure synchronous testing.

Research results

Eye acupuncture retaining needle effectively improved the patients in step length, speed, frequency, lower extremity joint angle, gravity center swing scope, peak pressure values, and impulse in the anterior and posterior regions of both the affected and healthy feet.

Research conclusions

This study demonstrated that eye acupuncture retaining needle and body acupuncture combined with routine rehabilitation can effectively improve the walking ability of patients.

Research perspectives

The results for long-term treatment are unknown, so whether there will still be similarities in intergroup changes at longer time points remains to be studied in the future.