Acupuncture Therapy Combined with Contemporary Rehabilitation Techniques for Treatment of Hemiplegia and Spasticity Caused by Apoplexy

Objective:To investigate the rehabilitative effect of the acupuncture therapy combined with the contemporary rehabilitation techniques on hemiplegia and spasticity caused by cerebral apoplexy.Methods:Eighty patients with hemiplegia and spasticity caused by cerebral apoplexy were randomized into the combined-treatment group and the control group.The patients in the combined-treatment group were treated by the acupuncture technique of the staged and whole-body acupuncture therapy combined with contemporary rehabilitation techniques for their spasticity treatment.But the patients in the control group were only treated by the contemporary rehabilitation techniques.The patients in the two groups were assessed before the treatment and 2 months after treatment by the following measurements: the modified Ashworth spasticity measuring scale,the simplified Fugl-Meyer assessment(FMA),and the Barthel exponential grading scale for spasticity.The patients were also evaluated on their physical moving ability and their daily living ability.Results:After the treatment the patients in the two groups were significantly improved in their spasticity and their lowered physical moving ability and daily living ability caused by hemiplegia(P 0.05).However,when the two groups were compared,the improvement degree was significantly greater in the combined-treatment group than in the control group(P 0.05),and the time for the combined-treatment group to enter the Brunnstrom IV stage was significantly shorter than that for the control group(P0.05).Conclusion:The acupuncture therapy combined with the contemporary rehabilitation techniques has a significantly-better effect on hemiplegia and spasticity caused by cerebral apoplexy than the contemporary rehabilitation techniques used only.