Clinical Report on the Indication and Therapeutic Effect of Acupuncture for Various Types of Facial Pain

Abstract

Purpose: Upon very specific diagnosis facial pain can be classified into idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia, secondary trigeminal neuralgia, neuralgia of the glossopharyngeal nerve, superior pharyngeal neuralgia, knee area neualgia and indeterminate facial pain.
In the future it will be necessary to determinate to what degree the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy is effective in treating these cases, and also when nerve block therapy is indicated and should be applied.
In the literature of the acupuncture-moxibustion trigeminal neuralgia is found among such diseases, for which A-M therapy is indicated, however the degree of effectiveness is unclear. Therefore we intend to clarify just how effective can be the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy in the pain clinic treatment of definitely diagnosed idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia.
Method: Among the facial pain patients, who visited the Pain Clinic, the Dep. of Anesthesiology, Osaka Medical University, we selected idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia patients, in whom the pain occured along the branch of the nerve, and indeterminate trigeminal neuralgia patients, in whom the pain occured diffusely and not necessarily along the path of the nerve, and we performed a comparison of effect of treatments with principally accupuncture and with principally nerve block.
The study was based on a questionnaire investigating long term results.
Results: Concerning facial pain, the results of the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy for idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia showed fewer cases of excellent or effective results than the nerve block therapy, but in fact most results of the former showed some effect. However, for indeterminate type trigeminal neuralgia more excellent results were observed with acupuncture therapy.
Of facial pain the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy is indicated for the treatment of indeterminate type of trigeminal neuralgia, however, it was learned that in general for the treatment of idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia the acupuncture-moxibustion therapy was less effective than the nerve block therapy.