Trigger Point Electroacupuncture Treatment in Patients With Chronic Low Back Pain

University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City60 enrolled

Overview

Electroacupuncture is an application of acupuncture combined with electrical stimulation of acupuncture points through acupuncture needles to achieve faster pain relief than acupuncture. Recently, research has shown that Trigger point acupuncture has a significant effect in reducing pain better than acupuncture on acupoints in patients with chronic low back pain. However, no research has compared the pain relief effect between Trigger Point electroacupuncture and electroacupuncture on acupoints in patients with chronic low back pain. This study was conducted to address this question.

Participants and Methods: A blinded randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted involving 60 chronic low back pain participants, randomly divided into two groups (A and B): 30 receiving electroacupuncture at the Trigger point (group A) and 30 receiving electroacupuncture on the meridian (group B) for 10 sessions. The primary outcomes were visual analogue scale (VAS), BPI index, and Trigger point count.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP)Trigger Points

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 20 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Patients aged 20 or older who consented to participate in the study; * Individuals experiencing LBP persisting for more than 3 months with an average VAS score of 5 cm or over; * Patients displaying trigger points in back Exclusion Criteria: * Major trauma or systemic disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, Scheuermann disease; * Systemic symptoms such as weight loss, fever of unknown origin, anorexia, personal history of malignancy, diffuse pain and joint stiffness; * Symptoms of infection such as fever, meningeal irritation signs, photophobia; * Symptoms of central motor neuron damage such as Hoffmann sign, Babinski sign, hyperreflexia, spasticity, incontinence, sexual dysfunction; * Symptoms of serious acute diseases such as myocardial infarction (chest pain, sweating, shortness of breath), arterial dissections (tearing sensation, headache, blurred vision); * Conditions unsuitable for acupuncture such as inflammation of skin in need of acupuncture, weak or exhausted patients, severe comorbidities; * Being treated with other methods. Elimination criteria: Patients experiencing adverse events from the intervention leading to their discomfort and withdrawal from the study

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Comparison of VAS pain intensity between electroacupuncture at the trigger point and electroacupuncture traditional point group

With the VAS, participants were asked to make a hatch mark on a 100 mm line that represents their average pain intensity. These were then converted to a numerical score for each face (i.e. 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10), depending on the face selected. The end-point descriptors for VAS was "No pain" (0, 0 mm, and the face representing no pain, respectively) and "The most intense pain imaginable" (10, 100 mm, and the face representing the most intense pain level, respectively).

Time frame: Baseline, after 3 sessions, after 5 sessions, after 7 sessions, after 10 sessions

Secondary Outcomes

Comparison of BPI index between electroacupuncture at the trigger point and electroacupuncture traditional point group.

The BPI gives two main scores: a pain severity score and a pain interference score. The pain severity score is calculated from the four items about pain intensity. Each item is rated from 0, no pain, to 10, pain as bad as you can imagine, and contributes with the same weight to the final score, ranging from 0 to 40. The pain interference score corresponds to the item on pain interference. The seven sub-items (general activity, mood, walking ability, normal walk, relations with other people, sleep, and enjoyment of life) are rated from 0, does not interfere, to 10, completely interferes, and contributes with the same weight to the final score, ranging from 0 to 70. The first item, pain drawing diagrams (painful and most painful areas) and the items on pain relief treatment or medication (list of the treatments and amount of relief) do not contribute to the scoring. It takes approximately 5 minutes to complete the BPI.

Time frame: Baseline, after 5 sessions, and after 10 sessions