Manual acupuncture treatment significantly relived pain
associated with scar tissue, a case report published in the Journal of
Acupuncture and Meridian Studies.
Scar tissue usually forms after deep trauma, such as burns
and surgery to the dermis. Excessive scar also known as hypertrophic scar are
benign fibrotic proliferation due to the overproliferation of fibroblasts.
Current treatments include intralesional corticosteroid injection, radiotherapy
and surgical manipulation which are associated with adverse effects.
Dr. Sheng Fang in the United State treated a female patient
with a surgical scar on the upper right thigh for a year and wrote a case
report. The scar was about 3 inches long, 1/4 inch wide, red colour, tough, and
hard. It was very sensitive to touch. Patient mentioned she felt a stabling
pain in the scar area for 3 months. The pain intensity level was 7 on the
Likert Scale of 0-10 (0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain). Acupuncture
treatment consisted of Wei Ci points in the local scar area (8 needles) plus
bilateral LI4, LIV3 and ST36 acupoints. Treatments lasted 20 mins each time,
twice a week for 3 weeks. After second treatment patient reported a decreased
pain associated with scar. At the end of 3 week treatment patient only
occasionally pain. The pain intensity level dropped to 1-2 on a scale of 0-10.
Then treatment was once a week for further two weeks. Patient felt the pain
maintained at the similar level as the third week treatment. No further
follow-up was carried out.
The case report suggests that acupuncture markedly reduced
pain associated with scar tissue.
Reference:
Fang S, The successful treatment of pain
associated with scar tissue. J Acupunct
Meridian Stud 2014;7(5):262-264. http://www.jams-kpi.com/article/S2005-2901(14)00092-2/abstract
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