Wet Cupping Therapy Improves Local Blood Perfusion and Analgesic Effects in Patients with Nerve-Root Type Cervical Spondylosis.

OBJECTIVE

To observe wet cupping therapy (WCT) on local blood perfusion and analgesic effects in patients with nerve-root type cervical spondylosis (NT-CS).

METHODS

Fifty-seven NT-CS patients were randomly divided into WCT group and Jiaji acupoint-acupuncture (JA) group according a random number table. WCT group (30 cases) was treated with WCT for 10 min, and JA group (27 cases) was treated with acupuncture for 10 min. The treatment efficacies were evaluated with a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Blood perfusion at Dazhui (GV 14) and Jianjing (GB 21) acupoints (affected side) was observed with a laser speckle flowmetry, and its variations before and after treatment in both groups were compared as well.

RESULTS

In both groups, the VAS scores significantly decreased after the intervention (P<0.01), while the blood perfusion at the two acupoints significantly increased after intervention (P<0.05); however, the increasement magnitude caused by WCT was obvious compared with JA (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

WCT could improve analgesic effects in patients with NT-CS, which might be related to increasing local blood perfusion of acupunct points.