Clinical study on acupuncture combined with swallowing training for treating dysphagic patients with stroke

Objective:To survey the effect of acupuncture combined with swallowing training on dysphagic patients with subacute stroke, and investigate the evaluation of curative effect for dysphagia. Method:Ninety-five subacute stroke patients who were hospitalized, included 51 males, 44 females, with mean age of 68.02±9.33 years, 16 cerebral hemorrhage patients, 79 cerebral infarct patients, participated the study. All patients were divided into 3 groups: ①Swallowing training group(ST, n=33) were treated with swallowing training only, included thermal-tactile stimulation, deglutition organ exercises and food swallowing training. ②Acupuncture group(AP, n=31) were treated with acupuncture and swallowing training. Acupuncture was given at Fengchi(GB20), Lianquan(RN23), Bailao(EX-HN15), Jinjing(EX-HN12) and Yuye(EX-HN13). ③Electric stimulation group(ES, n=31) were treated with electric stimulation on the neck and swallowing training. The treatments were once a day, 6 times in 1 week. Before and after receiving treatment regimen, the patients were evaluated with Water-Swallow Test, Swallow Function Score and clinical curative effect assessment. Result:All the 95 patients were involved in the analysis of results. ① After receiving the treatment regimen, all 3 groups showed improvement in Water-Swallow Test, Swallow Function Score (P0.05—0.001). ② After receiving treatment regimen in 3 groups, the patients number of normal Water-Swallow Test score were 5,15 and 11, the Swallow Function Score were 7.27±2.45,9.29±0.90,8.68±1.70, the cure rate were 24.2%, 58.1%, 32.3% respectively. The scores of AP and ES group were significantly higher than that of ST group (P0.05—0.001). There was no difference between AP and ES group (P0.05). ③ Serious patients in AP group were improved better than that in ES group (P0.05). Conclusion: The effects of acupuncture combined with swallowing training and electric stimulation combined with swallowing training for dysphagic stroke patients were better than that of swallowing training only. The effect of acupuncture combined with swallowing training was superior to that of electric stimulation combined with swallowing training for serious patients.