Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:309831. doi: 10.1155/2013/309831. Epub 2013 Jun 24.
Low back pain due to lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is very common in clinic. This randomized controlled trial was designed to investigate the effects of integrative TCM conservative therapy for low back pain due to LDH. A total of 408 patients with low back pain due to LDH were randomly assigned to an experimental group with integrative TCM therapy and a control group with normal conservative treatment by the ratio of 3 : 1. The primary outcome was the pain by the visual analogue scale (VAS). The secondary outcome was the low back functional activities by Chinese Short Form Oswestry Disability Index (C-SFODI). Immediately after treatment, patients in the experimental group experienced significant improvements in VAS and C-SFODI compared with the control group (between-group difference in mean change from baseline, -16.62 points, P < 0.001 in VAS; -15.55 points, P < 0.001 in C-SFODI). The difference remained at one-month followup, but it is only significant in C-SFODI at six-month followup (-7.68 points, P < 0.001). No serious adverse events were observed. These findings suggest that integrative TCM therapy may be a beneficial complementary and alternative therapy for patients with low back pain due to LDH.
腰椎间盘突出症（LDH）引起的腰痛在临床上很常见。本随机对照试验旨在研究综合中医保守疗法对 LDH 引起的腰痛的疗效。共有 408 例 LDH 腰痛患者按 3:1 的比例随机分为综合中医治疗组和常规保守治疗对照组。主要结局指标为视觉模拟评分（VAS）的疼痛程度。次要结局指标为中国简式 Oswestry 功能障碍指数（C-SFODI）的下腰痛功能活动。治疗后即刻，实验组患者 VAS 和 C-SFODI 均较对照组显著改善（组间平均基线变化差值，VAS 为-16.62 分，P < 0.001；C-SFODI 为-15.55 分，P < 0.001）。这种差异在一个月的随访中仍然存在，但在六个月的随访中仅在 C-SFODI 中具有统计学意义（-7.68 分，P < 0.001）。未观察到严重不良事件。这些发现表明，综合中医治疗可能是 LDH 腰痛患者有益的补充和替代治疗方法。
