Acupuncture With Planning Treatment According To Diagnosis: A Trial Study Of Protocol And Its Effects For Stiff Shoulder

The major goal of this research was to develop a standardized protocol through means of planning treatment by conducting a general statistical analysis on various patients’ symptoms and signs, including also a study of new patients with very major complaints of shoulder stiffness, which is a minor acupuncture therapy in the Japanese people according to the identification of the major problem through the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The test was conducted on the participants according to three blood group thesis that included Qi stagnancy (Group-1), Deficiency of Liver-blood (Group-2) and Yin deficiency of Liver and Blood (Group-3). The diagnosis was conducted once every week for two weeks with acupuncture treatment.

Abstract

Shoulder pain became to be among the health problems that many patients recorded when they visited the acupuncture clinic. Many of the individuals who recorded the highest complaints were women. Due to the constant reports of shoulder stiffness and chronic dull pain, a detailed protocol for the planning treatment was made in order to find a more efficient way to improve acupuncture medical care. Many strategies were used in the treatment of acupuncture diagnosis for stiff shoulders depending on their level of experience, after which the results were independently assessed by qualified researchers. According to the statistical analysis and findings, after applying treatment to the patients, there was a general decrease in the average Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores slowly for the test participants in the experiment. The importance of the research was to come up with a protocol treatment plan for chronic dull pain and shoulder pain. According to the results which were obtained, the current study protocol associated with protocol treatment planning for the diagnosis would lead to an improved way of reducing pain for patients who are suffering from shoulder pain and chronic dull pain areas. It will also be an efficient and collective method that will lead to better ways of treating patients characterized by stiff necks and shoulders.

Introduction

Shoulder pain has become a crucial problem for Western people, where statistics show that between 7 percent and 26 percent of the demography have been reported to complain about neck pain. The acupuncture clinic also acknowledges that a lot of new patients neck and shoulder pain was the highest medical complain with women according 2015 to 2016 statistics toping as the majority affected as compared to men. Majorly chronic dull pain and neck pain are the earliest symptoms recorded by most women in Japan. Other symptoms that are associated with this health problem are headache, nausea and arm pain, which leads to earlier symptoms of cervical-omo-brachial syndrome. The hindrance of proper blood circulating in the trapezius and its closest muscles leads to the accumulation of waste around the neck and shoulder, causing the effect.

The clinical trials that were involved used paired t-tests in their analysis, with comparisons drawn using a one-way analysis of variance. Various therapeutic methods and styles were used depending on the level of the acupuncturists through injections on tender points on the neck and shoulders. Acupuncture provides an effective way the treatment neck and shoulder pains.

Literature Review

Search Strategy

The research question for the literature review was “How has acupuncture treatment led to the successful reduce of chronic dull pain and neck or shoulder pain?” Most of the keywords that were obtained using the PICO format included acupuncture, protocol, diagnosis, neck pain and shoulder (Dolder, 2012). Most non-useful, non-wanted, and truncation of symbols were utilized at all costs. Most keywords were used in the search strategy.

The search strategy was confined to Systematic reviews and randomized controlled Trials since they are highly ranked in the National Health and Medical Research. Various online databases were searched to find the relevant topic of study. Some of those databases included CINAHL, Medline, EBSCOhost and Medscape (Dolder, 2012).

Methods

The research was recommended by the Hospital Ethics Committee. The test participants (patients) comprised males and females who were attached to the acupuncture clinic of the Suzuka University of Medical Science (SUMS) in Japan and had a lot of complaints of chronic dull pain stiffness in the neck and shoulder. To avoid data being biased, some individuals were also willing to take part in the experimental analysis and signed up as clinical research volunteers to participate in the study. All the results that were obtained from the test were submitted to the ethics committee of the Suzuka University of Medical Science (SUMS), after which they were approved. The test was conducted on the test participants according to three blood group thesis that included Qi stagnancy (Group-1), Deficiency of Liver-blood (Group-2) and Yin deficiency of Liver and Blood (Group-3) (Dolder, 2012). The diagnosis was conducted once every week for two weeks with acupuncture treatment.

In addition to the normal point selection areas such as Group-1 Blood Stasis due to Qi Stagnancy, Group-2 Deficiency of Liver-Blood and Group-3 Yin Deficiency of Liver and Kidney, others were also added in accordance with Symptomatic Meridians. This comprised Taiyang Meridian (neck and shoulder), Yangming Meridian (anterior neck and shoulder) and Shaoyang Meridian (lateral neck and shoulder). Also acupoints located mainly around the pathological changes of anatomic sites were used to remove obstruction channels and bring into relaxation of the strained muscles finally. Some of these anatomic sites included musculus semispinalis capitis, musculus rhomboideus minor, musculus supraspinatus and musculus levator scapulae (Dolder, 2012).

UNISCO disposal acupuncture needles with tubes were manually stimulated to these site points. The needles were allowed to stay for 10 minutes, after which they were discarded. The magnitude of the pain in the neck and the shoulder stiffness was measured using a Visual analog scale (VAS), and results were recorded for each participant (Dolder, 2012). Data was taken from the samples and analyzed using the paired t-tests. Comparisons were evaluated using a one-way analysis of variance followed by post hoc Tukey’s multiple comparisons. The Statistical Analysis System (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used. The level of statistical significance was set at p<0.05 and p<0.01.

Data Analysis

Thirty-two patients, including those who were sick and the volunteers, were used as a sample for the study. In the second test, one patient in Group 1 and another two patients in Group 3 discontinued the study due to scheduling problems. Now, the remaining twenty-nine volunteers remained for the study throughout the exercise, two of which were males and twenty-seven were females with an average age of 70±16 years old. The average value of the Value Analog Scale values for all participants at a baseline initial consultation gradually decreased after treatment, as shown in the figure below; in addition, there was an important decrease at the third consultation when compared to the baseline values (p<0.01).

Discussion

Despite the experiment was conducted safely some limitations are available in the current study. The test participants had their range of years from 23 to 86 years old, this inappropriate agreement of positive effect changes. A close range of ages is required to make a conclusion about the protocol. Another limitation is that the study was conducted for a duration of two years, and changes in temperature in various seasons may distort the patient information, leading to poor conclusions. Studies are required to take the short a time as possible.

In conclusion, despite the existence of limitations of this study, we can generally conclude that acupuncture would lead to an effective way of relieving chronic dull pain and also reduce neck and shoulder stiffness.

References

Dolder PA, Ferreira PH, Refshauge KN. Effectiveness of soft tissue massage and exercise for the treatment of non-specific shoulder pain: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med 1-12: (2012).