[Effect of alternative administration of scalp-acupuncture, body-acupuncture and abdominal-acupuncture on the upper-limb dyscinesia in patients with stroke].

Abstract

To observe the effect of combined treatment of apoplectic upper-limb dyscinesia with scalp-acupuncture, body-acupuncture and abdominal-acupuncture in stroke patients.
A total of 222 stroke patients were randomized into treatment group (n = 133) and control group (n = 89) according to the random number table method. For patients of treatment group, scalp-point used was Motor Area (MS 6); body acupoints were Hegu (LI 4), Quchi (LI 11), Shousanli (LI 10), etc; and abdominal acupoints Zhongwan (CV 12), Qihai (CV 6), etc. For patients in control group, only the same body acupoints were used. Acupuncture treatment was given once daily for 5 weeks. The therapeutic effects were evaluated by Fugl-Meyer motor function assessment (FMA) and Barthel-index (BI) scores.
In comparison with pre-treatment, FMA score and BI score increased significantly 5 weeks, 1 and 3 months in treatment group, 1 and 3 months in control group (P < 0.01). Comparison between two groups showed that both FMA score and BI score of treatment group were markedly higher than those of control group 5 weeks, 1 and 3 months after the treatment (P < 0.01).
Alternative administration of scalp-acupuncture, body-acupuncture and abdominal acupuncture can effectively improve stroke patients' upper-limb motor function, and its effect is obviously better than that of simple body acupuncture.