Clinical Observations on the Efficacy of Superficial Needling plus Functional Training in Treating Shoulder-hand Syndrome

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy of superficial needling plus functional training in treating post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome (shoulder pain). Methods Forty patients with post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome were randomly allocated to two groups,20 cases each. In addition to functional training,the treatment group received superficial needling and the control group took medication with meloxicam. The evaluation was made using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and the Takagishi shoulder joint function assessment in the two groups before treatment and after one and two courses of treatment. There were no statistically significant pre-treatment differences between the two groups (both P0.05). The VAS score and the shoulder point function score increased significantly more after two courses of treatment,especially after the first course in the treatment group than in the control group (P0.01). Conclusion Superficial needling plus functional training has a marked therapeutic effect on post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome.