A clinical study on treating lumbar disc herniation with different electroacupuncture dose

Objective The therapeutic effectiveness of different electroacupuncture dose on lumbar disc herniation was studied. Methods 200 cases with lumbar disc herniation, who were also diagnosed of blood stasis and qi stagnation, and obstruction of collaterals by TCM syndrome differentiation, were randomly divided into a control group and a treatment group (100/group) by tail number of cases. Both groups were cured with electroacupuncture, while receiving treatments of Qd, 20 minutes/time in the control group; Bid, 20minutes/time in the treatment group. Effects were analyzed after the treatment(35days/course). Results After treatment, control-markedly rate was 91％ in the treatment group, and 68％ in the control group; There was significant difference of control- markedly rate between the two groups (Z=-3.5480, P＜0.05). According to the analysis of the symptoms and signs: low back pain (0.65±0.03) score, tender point (1.12±0.11) score, lumbar activity (0.75±0.12) score, dysbasia ( 1.01 ±0.06) score, straight leg raising test (0.37±0.12) score,radioactive pain in the legs (0.61 ±0.09) score, strengthening test (0.29±0.08) score, toe strength (0.29±0.09)score in the control group, those improvements of both groups existed obvious statistical difference (P＜0.05).There was also significant difference of average effective time between the two groups (P＜0.01) [ (3.86±2.106)d in the treatment group, (5.12±3.125)d in the control group]. Conclusion Electroacupuncture Bid group was superior to electroacupuncture Qd group for treating lumbar disc herniation. Key words: Electroacupuncture;  Different acupuncture dose;  Lumbar disc herniation