Observation on the efficacy of electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training in the treatment of post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome

OBJECTIVE: To observe the changes in swelling, pain and upper-limb motor function indices before and after treatment in patients with shoulder-hand syndrome in an electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training group and a rehabilitation training alone group, to preliminarily explore the overall clinical efficacy and advantages of electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training in the treatment of shoulder-hand syndrome, and thus to select a more effective combined method for clinical application. METHODS: Sixty cases meeting the inclusion criteria were collected from inpatients of the Department of Neurology and the Department of Acupuncture and Rehabilitation of Conghua Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and divided into two groups according to the randomized controlled principle (treatment group: electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training; control group: rehabilitation training alone), 30 cases in each group. Both groups were treated once a day, 5 sessions constituting one course, with a 2-day interval between courses, for a total of 3 courses. At the end of each course, the swelling degree score, the visual analogue scale (VAS) for pain and the simplified Fugl-Meyer upper-limb motor function scale (FMA) were used to compare the changes in the scores for edema, pain and upper-limb motor function before and after treatment in the two groups, and the overall clinical efficacy of the treatment protocol was observed. RESULTS: 1. By chi-square test, there were no significant differences in the general data (age, course of disease, etiology, number of episodes) between the two groups (P>0.05), and they were comparable. In the treatment group, 12 cases were markedly effective, 17 improved and 1 ineffective, with a total effective rate of 96.9%; in the control group, 1 case was markedly effective, 24 improved and 4 ineffective, with a total effective rate of 83.3%. Comparing the overall efficacy, there was a significant difference between the electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training group and the rehabilitation training alone group (P<0.01). The results show that the efficacy of the electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training group was clearly superior to that of the rehabilitation training alone group. 2. Swelling: after 1 course, both groups showed significant differences compared with before treatment (P<0.05); after 3 courses, both the treatment group and the control group showed highly significant differences compared with before treatment (P<0.01), but there was no statistical difference between the treatment group and the control group (P>0.05). 3. Pain: there was no significant difference in VAS scores between the two groups before treatment (P>0.05). In the treatment group, there were highly significant differences after 1 and 3 courses compared with before treatment (P<0.01), and the pain-reducing effect of the treatment group was superior to that of the control group (P<0.01). 4. Upper-limb motor function: before treatment there was no significant difference in simplified upper-limb FMA scores between the groups (P>0.05). After 1 and 3 courses, the simplified upper-limb FMA scores of each group differed significantly from those before treatment (P<0.01). After 3 courses, the FMA score of the electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training group differed significantly from that of the rehabilitation training alone group (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: In patients with post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome, both electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training and rehabilitation training alone can effectively reduce edema and pain and improve upper-limb motor function. The efficacy of the electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training group was clearly superior to that of the rehabilitation training alone group; electroacupuncture combined with rehabilitation training has a good synergistic effect in the treatment of post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome and can improve the overall clinical efficacy.