Forty-six cases of the nerve root-involved cervical spondylopathy treated by needling the "Sitian" points.

In order to investigate the analgesic effect of needling at "Sitian" points for the nerve root-involved cervical spondylopathy, 68 cases of the nerve root-involved cervical spondylopathy were randomly divided into a treatment group of 46 cases treated by needling at "Sitian" points, and a control group of 22 cases treated by needling at cervical Jiaji points. After 2 therapeutic courses, the therapeutic effects were evaluated by using the visual analogue scale (VAS) and the semeiographic format. The results showed that the markedly effective rate was 78.3% and 54.5%, respectively in the treatment group and the control group, and the difference between the two groups was of significance (P<0.05). It can be concluded that needling at "Sitian" points can bring about a better therapeutic effect on the improvement of clinical symptoms, physical signs and pain than that of the needling at the cervical Jiaji points.