Lateral epicondylalgia is a challenging condition to treat.
Laser acupuncture has been recently used to this condition. A meta-analysis to
compare the analgesic effect of laser acupuncture and manual acupuncture found
that manual acupuncture exerted better pain relief effect than laser
acupuncture. The study was recently published in the American Journal of Chinese
Medicine.
Lateral epicondylalgia has been recognized for a long time.
The typical signs and symptoms include pain and tenderness over the outer part
of elbow. It is an acute or chronic inflammation of the tendons that joins the
forearm muscles on the outside of elbow (lateral epicondyle). Lateral
epicondylalgia is regarded as an overuse injury that is difficult to treat,
prone to recurrent bout and may last up to 2 years.
Laser acupuncture is used recently to treat pain-related
conditions. Compared with manual acupuncture, laser applied to acupoint has
many advantages such as painless, aseptic, safe and dosage adjustable. It is
believed that the pain relief achieved by laser acupuncture is related to the
metabolism of adenosine triphosphate because it encourages the myofascial
trigger point to absorb energy and thereby cause local hypoxia to increase
blood circulation, which subsequently decrease the pain caused by lateral
epicondylalgia.
By inserting needle into the acupoint manual acupuncture activates
biosignals surrounding acupoints. On the one hand the signals are sent to
certain brain region, leading to the increased release of endorphin, relieving
pain. On the other hand, manual acupuncture stimulation induced an increase in
local levels of adenosine, a neuromodulators with analgesic property, which
will enhance pain relief.
Researchers in Taiwan conducted a systematic review and
meta-analysis to compare the analgesic effect of laser acupuncture and manual
acupuncture to treating lateral epicondylalgia. They collected the relevant
data from many databases from 1980 to 2013. The review study included 9
randomized study articles, of 6 examined manual acupuncture and others focused
on laser acupuncture. They found that manual acupuncture immediately relieved
the pain of lateral epicondylalgia, but its long-term analgesic effect is
unremarkable. Applying it at a suitable acupuncture point and to an optimal
acupuncture depth can effectively treat lateral epicondylalgia.
The study indicates that manual acupuncture applied to
lateral epicondylalgia produces stronger evidence of pain relief than the laser
acupuncture does.
Reference:
Chang WD et al., Analgesic effect of manual
acupuncture and laser acupuncture for lateral epicondylalgia: a systematic
review and meta-analysis. Am J Chin Med. 2014;42(6):1301-14. doi:
10.1142/S0192415X14500815. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1725258/
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