| |
|
Sciatic
Pain
Wehling P, Reinecke J.
Praxis
und Klinik
fur Orthopadie und Neurochirurgie, Dusseldorf
Introduction: Because of their frequency and
consequences sciatica remains a demanding clinical entity with significant
social and economical impact. There is a high demand on therapeutic modalities,
using folk medicine methods in the treatment of orthopaedic diseases. No data is available on
the usefullness of methods like natural herbs in combination with acupuncture. Aim of
our study was to present data on the effect of acupuncture and cytokineinhibiting natural herbs in sciatic pain. We compared these results
with nerve root infiltration by local anaesthetics and corticosteroids in our
orthopaedic outpatient clinic.
|
|
|
|
Materials and
Results: 278
patients with chronic pain for at least 3 months were observed. All three
therapeutical modalities showed improvement of pain scores. Best results were gained
with steroid injection ( n=26; 66% pain reduction), acupuncture in combination with herbs improved
the pain in average of 62% ( n=230), whereas injection with local anaesthetic had a pain reduction of 48% ( n=22). Sole Mepivacain-HCl treatment had significant less pain reduction compared to the other
treatment modalities.
Conclusion: According to our results
acupuncture in combination with herbs and steroid nerve blocks appear to be an
effective and thus recommendable conservative therapy in cases of sciatic pain.
Taking into account that patients increasingly prefer ethnomedical modalities of treatment our study gains importance for practising orthopaedists.
PMID:
12799820 [PubMed]
|
|
|
