• Pain Res Manag · Jan 2022

    Randomized Controlled Trial

    Rapid Improvement in Neck Disability, Mobility, and Sleep Quality with Chronic Neck Pain Treated by Fu's Subcutaneous Needling: A Randomized Control Study.

    • Ching-Hsuan Huang, Lung-Hung Tsai, Mao-Feng Sun, Zhonghua Fu, Jian Sun, and Li-Wei Chou.
    • Department of Chinese Traumatology Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404332, Taiwan.
    • Pain Res Manag. 2022 Jan 1; 2022: 7592873.

    BackgroundChronic neck pain is a common musculoskeletal disorder caused by overuse of neck and upper back muscles or poor posture, and it is commonly combined with a limited range of motion in the neck and shoulders. Most cases will recover within a few days; however, the symptoms often recur easily. Fu's subcutaneous needling (FSN) is a new therapeutic approach used to treat patients with chronic neck pain. However, there is no solid evidence to support the effectiveness of FSN on chronic neck pain and disability.MethodsParticipants (n = 60) with chronic neck pain for more than 2 months with pain intensity scored by visual analog scale (VAS) more than five were enrolled in this trial. Participants were equally randomized into the FSN or transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) group who received interventions once a day on day 1, day 2, and day 4. They were assessed by outcome measurements during pre- and post-treatment and followed up for 15 days.ResultsThe VAS was immediately reduced in the FSN and TENS groups and sustained for 15 days of follow-up (all P < 0.001). The immediate effects were also observed as the pressure pain threshold increased in the FSN group on day 2 (P=0.006) and day 4 (P=0.023) after treatment, and tissue hardness decreased by FSN on day 1 and day 2 after treatment (both P < 0.001). FSN and TENS treatment improved neck disability and mobility; moreover, FSN promoted participants to receive better sleep quality, as determined by PSQI assessment (P=0.030). TENS had no benefit on sleep quality.ConclusionFSN was able to relieve pain and relax muscle tightness. Notably, FSN significantly improved neck disability and mobility and enhanced sleep quality. These findings demonstrated that FSN could be an effective alternative treatment option for patients with chronic neck pain. Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03605576, registered on July 30, 2018.Copyright © 2022 Ching-Hsuan Huang et al.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…