Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Department of Massage, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Ji'nan, China.
Ann Palliat Med. 2021 Nov;10(11):11785-11797. doi: 10.21037/apm-21-2986.
Chronic non-specific low back pain (NLBP) affects people of all ages and pose a serious threat to human health. Fu's subcutaneous needling (FSN) has been reported to be effective in treating such disorders, but the control group is lacking. The aim of this randomized parallel study is to compare the long-term efficiency of FSN therapy with massage therapy for treatment of NLBP.
A total of 60 chronic NLBP patients recruited from Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University were randomly assigned to the FSN therapy group or massage therapy group. The main prognostic indicators included pain intensity measured on the visual analog scale (VAS), functional outcomes assessed by the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scoring system, functional disability estimated using Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and quality of life evaluated by Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36). These indicators were evaluated at baseline, post-treatment, 3 months after treatment, and 12 months after treatment.
After 12 months of follow-up, we found that the 2 treatment regimens exhibited similarly favorable results in terms of all prognostic indicators in comparison with their respective baseline data (all P<0.01). However, compared with the massage group, the FSN group showed more significant improvements in VAS, JOA, and ODI at all follow-up time points, as well as SF-36 at post-treatment and 12 months after treatment (all P<0.05).
Our findings suggest that FSN therapy is significantly more effective than massage therapy in the improvement of pain intensity, functional outcomes, functional disability, and quality of life in a long-term follow-up. However, future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to corroborate the long-term efficiency of FSN therapy for chronic NLBP.
Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2100050866.
慢性非特异性下腰痛（NLBP）影响所有年龄段的人群，对人类健康构成严重威胁。浮针疗法（FSN）已被报道对治疗此类疾病有效，但缺乏对照组。本随机平行研究旨在比较 FSN 疗法与按摩疗法治疗 NLBP 的长期疗效。
本研究共纳入重庆医科大学附属永川医院的 60 例慢性 NLBP 患者，随机分为 FSN 治疗组或按摩治疗组。主要预后指标包括视觉模拟评分（VAS）测量的疼痛强度、日本矫形协会（JOA）评分系统评估的功能结果、Oswestry 残疾指数（ODI）估计的功能障碍以及健康调查简表 36 项（SF-36）评估的生活质量。这些指标在基线、治疗后、治疗后 3 个月和治疗后 12 个月进行评估。
随访 12 个月后，我们发现两种治疗方案在所有预后指标上与各自的基线数据相比均显示出相似的良好结果（均 P<0.01）。然而，与按摩组相比，FSN 组在所有随访时间点的 VAS、JOA 和 ODI 以及治疗后和治疗后 12 个月的 SF-36 方面均显示出更显著的改善（均 P<0.05）。
我们的研究结果表明，FSN 疗法在改善疼痛强度、功能结果、功能障碍和生活质量方面明显优于按摩疗法，在长期随访中效果更显著。然而，需要更大样本量的研究来证实 FSN 疗法治疗慢性 NLBP 的长期疗效。
中国临床试验注册中心 ChiCTR2100050866。
