Original Article Clinical Review of the Effects of Chukyu (spine-
healing) Pharmacopuncture in the Treatment of Lumbago and Skelalgia Patients
Yoo-Hwan Lee 1 , Jung-Hee Kim 1 , Jae-Yeob Jeong 1 , Kyeong-A Lee 1 , Cheol-Hong Kim 1 , Kyung-Jun Jang 1 , Won-Il Kim 2 , Young-Gyun Kim 2 , Hyun-Min Yoon 1 *
1
Department of Acupuncture & Moxibustion, Dong-Eui University College of Oriental Medicine, Busan, Korea
2
Department of Oriental Internal Medicine, Dong-Eui University College of Oriental Medicine, Busan, Korea
Key Words
lumbago; skelalgia; chukyu (spine-healing) pharmacopuncture
ISSN 2093-6966(Print), ISSN 2234-6856(Online) Journal of Pharmacopuncture 2012;15(3):039-044 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3831/KPI.2012.15.006
1. Introduction
Lumbago has been a distressing problem among human beings since they, unlike other animals, started to stand erect with both feet, and over 80% of the general population is reported to experience lumbago [1]. Lumbago and skelalgia are radiating pains to the lower back and legs.
These terms just represent clinical symptoms, not disease entities or syndromes [2]. In Western medicine, the causes of lower back pain (LBP) are classified as discogenic, verteb- ral and abdominal. The main diseases causing lumbago are lumbosacral sprain, herniation of the intervertebral discs, spinal stenosis, spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis, spondylo- sis and osteoporosis [3]. The traditional Korean medical treatment of lumbago is mainly conservative, and the literat- ure has reported various treatment options, including herbal medicine, acupuncture, physical therapy, chuna manual me- dicine, electro-acupuncture treatment and exercise. Many pharmacopuncture therapies, such as body acupuncture, Sa-am acupuncture, Dong-Si acupuncture, eight-constituti- on acupuncture, auricular acupuncture, hand-finger acup- uncture and pharmacopuncture, are used in various combi- nations [4].
Pharmacopuncture therapy selects highly effective herbs for treating human disease. Effective pharmacopuncture fluid is extracted from herbs and is injected into the meridi- an points or sore spots. It is a mixed treatment option that combines the meridian system and medical action [5]. Many researchers currently use pharmacopuncture therapy for the treatment of lumbago and skelalgia. Cha et al. [6], Yu et al. [7], and Lee et al. [8] performed a combination of acupun- cture therapy and bee venom pharmacopuncture on patients with herniation of the lumbar intervertebral discs. This combined treatment suggests that bee venom pharmacopu- ncture may have an effect on the disease. Yoon et al. [9] con-
Abstract
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Ob bjje ec cttiivve e:: The purpose of this study is to report the effects of Chukyu (spine-healing) pharmacopuncture treatment in patients with lumbago and skelalgia.
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Me etth ho od ds s:: This clinical study included 45 patients who were treated for lumbago and skelalgia at the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibusition, Dong-Eui University College of Oriental Medicine, from July 5, 2011, to January 31, 2012. Sub- jects were randomly divided into two groups: Chukyu (spine- healing)-pharmacopuncture-treated group (experimental gr- oup, n = 23) and normal saline-pharmacopuncture-treated gr- oup (control group, n = 22). Patients in the experimental group were treated with acupuncture and Chukyu (spine-healing) pharmacopuncture while those in the control group were tre- ated with acupuncture and normal saline pharmacopuncture.
To estimate the efficacy of controlling pain, we checked the visual analog scale [VAS], and to estimate the improvement of the symptoms, we evaluated by pain rating scale [PRS] and the Oswestry low-back pain disability index [ODI].
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Re es su ulltts s:: A comparison of the experimental and the control gr- oups showed more significant improvements in the VAS, PRS, and ODI for the experimental group than for the control group.
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Co on nc cllu us siio on ns s:: Chukyu (spine-healing) pharmacopuncture can be used for effective treatment in patients with lumbago and skelalgia.
Received: May 04, 2012 Accepted: Sept 12, 2012
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