Xiao J, Cao BY, Xie Z, Ji YX, Zhao XL, Yang HJ, Zhuang W, Sun HH, Liang WM. Clinical efficacy of electromagnetic field therapy combined with traditional Chinese pain-reducing paste in myofascial pain syndrome. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(32): 11753-11765 [PMID: 36405282 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i32.11753]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Zeng Xie, MMed, Doctor, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Xiyuan Hospital, Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, No. 1 Xiyuan Caochang, Haidian District, Beijing 100091, China. xzyig131@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Rehabilitation
Article-Type of This Article
Clinical Trials Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
Share the Article
Xiao J, Cao BY, Xie Z, Ji YX, Zhao XL, Yang HJ, Zhuang W, Sun HH, Liang WM. Clinical efficacy of electromagnetic field therapy combined with traditional Chinese pain-reducing paste in myofascial pain syndrome. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(32): 11753-11765 [PMID: 36405282 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i32.11753]
Jing Xiao, Bing-Yan Cao, Zeng Xie, Yu-Xuan Ji, Xing-Li Zhao, Hong-Jie Yang, Wei Zhuang, Hai-Hua Sun, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Xiyuan Hospital, Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100091, China
Wen-Ming Liang, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Vilnius LT-10257, Lithuania
Author contributions: Xiao J, Cao BY, Xie Z and Liang WM were responsible for the study conception and design, data analysis, interpretation, and manuscript drafting; Ji YX, Zhao XL, Yang HJ, Zhuang W and Sun HH were responsible for the data collection and data analysis; all authors reviewed and approved the final version to be published.
Supported by the Project of Capacity Building for Sustainable Utilization of Precious Traditional Chinese Medicine Resources, No. 2060302.
Institutional review board statement: The research protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Xiyuan Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (Approval No. 2018XLA049-7).
Clinical trial registration statement: This study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (http://www.chictr.org.cn). The registration number is ChiCTR2000033700. And this registration policy applies to randomized placebo-controlled clinical trials.
Informed consent statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.
Data sharing statement: Raw data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 statement.
Corresponding author: Zeng Xie, MMed, Doctor, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, Xiyuan Hospital, Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, No. 1 Xiyuan Caochang, Haidian District, Beijing 100091, China. xzyig131@163.com
Received: May 30, 2022 Peer-review started: May 30, 2022 First decision: July 13, 2022 Revised: July 26, 2022 Accepted: October 17, 2022 Article in press: October 17, 2022 Published online: November 16, 2022 Processing time: 161 Days and 20.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy is widely used to treat myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). Damp-clearing and pain-reducing paste (DPP) comprises medical herbs and has been a traditional method of reducing myofascial pain in China for a long time, and it is usually administered with heating. However, the synergistic effect of PEMF therapy on heating-DPP in patients with MPS is unclear.
AIM
To investigate the synergistic effect of PEMF therapy plus heating-DPP in lumbar MPS.
METHODS
This double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was conducted on 120 patients with lumbar MPS who were randomly divided into an experimental group (EG, n = 60) and a control group (CG, n = 60). Patients in both groups were treated with heating-DPP combined with PEMF therapy; however, the electromagnetic function of the therapeutic apparatus used in the CG was disabled. Each treatment lasted for 20 min and was applied five times a week for two weeks. The short-form McGill Pain Questionnaire was applied at five time points: pretest, end of the first and second weeks of treatment, and end of the first and fourth week after completing treatment. Visual analog scale (VAS), present pain intensity index (PPI), and pain rating index (PRI; total, affective pain, and sensory pain scores) scores were then analyzed.
RESULTS
Compared with the CG, the VAS, PPI and PRI scores (total, affective pain and sensory pain scores) in the EG were significantly lower after treatment and during follow-up.
CONCLUSION
PEMF therapy combined with heating-DPP showed better efficacy than heating-DPP alone in reducing the overall intensity of pain and sensory and affective pain.
Core Tip: The present study was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial designed to compare the clinical efficacy of pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy combined with heating-damp-clearing and pain-reducing paste (DPP) to that of heating-DPP alone for lower back myofascial pain syndromes. The main finding was that PEMF therapy combined with heating-DPP had better efficacy than heating-DPP alone in reducing the intensity of pain.
