[Multicenter controlled study on abdominal acupuncture for treatment of nerve root type cervical spondylosis].

OBJECTIVE: To observe the therapeutic effect of abdominal acupuncture on nerve root cervical spondylosis. METHODS: Three hundred cases were randomly assigned to a treatment group and a traction control group. The treatment group were treated with abdominal acupuncture at an acupoint prescription, i.e. Zhongwan (CV 12), Guanyuan (CV 4) and others were selected. The control group were treated with suspended traction by a cervical vertebral extraction belt at pillow-jaw sitting position. The short-term and long-term therapeutic effects were observed at the end of therapeutic course and 90 days after the end of treatment, respectively. RESULTS: The total short-term and the long-term therapeutic effects were 97.3% and 92.7% in the treatment group, and 82.0% and 82.0% in the control group, respectively, with significant differences between the two groups (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Abdominal acupuncture has better short-term and long-term therapeutic effects with short therapeutic course.