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The time course of the analgesic effect of acupuncture in the treatment of lateral epicondylalgia : a randomized controlled feasibility trial comparing standard acupuncture and electroacupuncture

University of British Columbia

Background: Resistance exercise is effective in relieving pain and improving grip strength in patients with lateral epicondylalgia (LE). However, patients’ activity-related pain can hinder their active participation in an exercise program. Acupuncture, particularly electro-acupuncture (EA), may be an effective complementary modality for pain control in order to promote patients’ participation in an exercise program and further to enhance therapeutic effects. Objectives: 1) assess the feasibility of a study designed to compare the effect size of analgesia induced by EA vs. standard acupuncture (SA); 2) estimate the time course of the analgesic effect of EA and SA for patients with LE; and 3) investigate if the analgesic effect of either intervention is associated with a change in pain-free grip strength. Methods: A double-blind, parallel-group randomized controlled feasibility trial was conducted at a research centre located in Vancouver, Canada. Twenty-one participants with unilateral LE lasting more than 6 weeks duration were enrolled in the study. The participants were randomly allocated to receive a single treatment of either EA (10-30 Hz) or SA. The primary outcome measure was pain-free grip strength, and the secondary outcome measures included the severity of lateral elbow pain (numeric rating scale), and patients’ global rating of change. Outcomes were measured over a 72-hour period. Results: No significant differences in outcome measures were found between the two treatment groups at any time point. A pattern of gradual improvement of pain-free grip strength (approximately 12N /day) over the 72-hour monitoring period in both treatment groups was observed, and this improvement was statistically significant compared to baseline at the 72-hour time point (38 ± 13N). In contrast, there was a statistically significant reduction in patients’ perceived pain level immediately after either treatment, and this improvement was maintained throughout the 72-hour follow-up period (-0.99~-1.59 ± 0.35). After 24 hours, 5% of patients reported themselves as feeling ‘much better’, 55% ‘slightly better’, 15% ‘unchanged’, 10% ‘slightly worse’, 10% ‘moderately worse’ and 5% ‘much worse’. Conclusion: Acupuncture may complement the therapeutic effect of rehabilitation exercise program as it provides immediate pain relief for patients with chronic LE. Trial registration: ISRCTN14667535 Funding: none

Text

2016-10-28

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/59577

Rehabilitation Sciences

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/