Acupuncture with or without bee venom injection at
acupoints around affected shoulder markedly improved pain and stiffness of
patients with frozen should. The therapeutic effect of acupuncture maintained
up to one year after treatment. The studies were published in the J Shoulder Elbow
Surg and J Altern Complement Med separately.
Frozen shoulder also known as adhesive capsulitis of
shoulder is one of the most common causes of intrinsic shoulder pain. Pain,
stiffness and loss of motion with insidious onset are usually the major symptoms.
Frozen shoulder occurs when the flexible tissues surrounds the shoulder joint,
known as capsule, became inflamed, formed adhesion and thickened. It is
estimated that around 3% of people may be affected at some points of their
life. Most commonly it affects of people of ages between 45 and 65. It is more
common in women. The common approaches include painkillers, local injection of
corticosteroid and surgery depending on the severity and length of condition. In
china acupuncture has been used to treat frozen shoulder for a very long time.
Recently researchers in Korea carried out a randomized
controlled study to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture plus physiotherapy
on frozen shoulder, and followed by another a one-year follow-up study. The
patients were given treatments that stimulated acupoints surrounding the
shoulder, with or without bee venom twice a week for 8 weeks. The following
assessments: shoulder pain disability index, pain visual analogue scale and
active/passive range of motion were monitored prior to and after the treatment.
All patients showed a significantly reduced pain, improved daily activities at
the end of treatment.
One year later, researchers did a follow-up studies. They
used telephone interview to ask the same patients the same questions as at the
end of the treatment. It was found that acupuncture treatment had a very
sustainable therapeutic effect one year after treatment.
Reference:
Koh PS et al.,
Clinical effectiveness of bee venom acupuncture and physiotherapy in the
treatment of adhesive capsulitis: a randomized controlled trial. J Shoulder
Elbow Surg. 2013 Aug;22(8):1053-62. doi: 10.1016/j.jse.2012.10.045. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23352187Park YC et al., Long-Term Effectiveness of Bee Venom Acupuncture and Physiotherapy in the Treatment of Adhesive Capsulitis (肩关节冻结症; 冻结肩): A One-Year Follow-Up Analysis of a Previous Randomized Controlled Trial. J Altern Complement Med. 2014 Nov 7.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25380241
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