椎間板ヘルニアに対する針通電の臨床的研究

抄録

Since the advent of Chinese Acupuncture Analgesia, Oriental medicine, especially acupuncture, has become more highly regarded throughout the world and the number of patients seeking acupuncture therapy has increased rapidly. I have been especially interested in the pain relief obtained through the use of acupuncture Analgesia recently in China and tried to examine its clinical uses.
I selected from among the lumbago and sciatica patients who visited my clinic from 1974 to 1975 20 patients who had been diagnosed by the plastic surgeons as intervertebral disc hernia patients, administered electrical acupuncture and stationary insertion methods and compared results.
I randomly divided the 20 patients into 2 groups, a test group, to which electrical acupuncture was administered and a control group, to which simple stationary insertion methods were administered.
Therapy for both groups involved perpendicular insertion with No. 8 stainless steel needles for a period of 20 minutes at BL-23, BL-25 and BL-54. For patients also plagued by leg pain and numbness insertion using the same methods at GB-30, ST-36 and GB-34 was administered. Electrical stimulation was administered using the Chinese-made BT701 Model Electrical Analgesia Apparatus. The negative pole was at BL-25, the positive at BL-54. Success of therapy was determined based on the following standard: CURE, ALLEVIATION, and WITHDRAWAL. CURE indicates cases in which symptoms were completely relieved and the patient was able to resume his normal activities. ALLEVIATION refers to an adjustment of symptoms to a degree however less operational ability than prior to the onset of the problem. WITHDRAWAL refers to cases in which therapy was discontinued before results were obtained.
Comparing success in the two groups we find that in the CURE category were 7 out of 10 in the test group, 5 out of 10 in the control group. In the ALLEVIATION category were 2 in the test group and 3 in the control group. In other words adding the CURES and ALLEVIATIONS to find results we arrive at a rate of success of 90% in the test group and 80% in the control group. From a mathematical point of view there is not a significant difference between these figures, however if results are examined from the point of view of the average number of treatments necessary, that is 28.7 in the test group and 36.8 in the control group, slightly promising tendencies can be observed in the test group. Thus we can conclude that electrical acupuncture serves to relieve symptoms more rapidly than simple stationary insertion.