Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society
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Back pain is a common symptom: up to 70% of UK adults experience this symptom by the age of 60 and most have moderate to severe pain. Back pain accounted for 12% of consultations to traditional acupuncturists in 2001 and is one of the most common reasons for consultation with an acupuncturist. This case report concerns a 54-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer and degenerative lower back pain, which remained painful despite intensive pharmaceutical management and facet joint injection and was ultimately successfully managed with two 30 min acupuncture treatments 2 weeks apart, using eight points on the BL meridians. Acupuncture treatment using tender points was later trialled for neuropathic pain secondary to local recurrence in her mastectomy scar, however this was unsuccessful and inpatient hospice admission for further intensive pharmaceutical management was required.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Comparison of the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment and local anaesthetic injection for low back pain: a randomised controlled clinical trial.
To compare the effectiveness of repeated acupuncture stimulation and local anaesthetic injection at the most painful points in patients with low back pain. ⋯ Both injection and acupuncture relieved pain, but acupuncture was superior for the immediate and sustained effects, suggesting that it is a useful treatment for low back pain. The difference in the effects may be attributable to differences in the mechanism of pain suppression.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Increased H-reflex response induced by intramuscular electrical stimulation of latent myofascial trigger points.
Myofascial trigger points (MTrPs) present with mechanical hyperalgesia and allodynia. No electrophysiological evidence exists as to the excitability of muscle spindle afferents at myofascial trigger points MTrPs. The purpose of this current study was to explore whether an H-reflex response could be elicited from intramuscular electrical stimulation. If so, to assess the possibility of increased reflex response at MTrPs. ⋯ The current study provides first electrophysiological evidence that intramuscular electrical stimulation can evoke H-reflex, and that higher H-reflex amplitude and lower H-reflex threshold exist at MTrPs than non-MTrPs respectively, suggesting that muscle spindle afferents may be involved in the pathophysiology of MTrPs.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Laser acupuncture for chronic non-specific low back pain: a controlled clinical trial.
the primary aim was to determine if laser acupuncture (LA) is more effective than sham laser in reducing pain and disability in adults with chronic non-specific low back pain. ⋯ this study did not show a specific effect for LA using infrared laser at 0.2 Joules per point for chronic low back pain. The overall intervention appeared effective because of placebo and other factors. As there was some concern about baseline inequality between the groups further research using tighter inclusion criteria should attempt to replicate the result and examine if a dose response may exist.