Blade needle treatment improves cervicogenic dizziness by increasing blood flow of vertebral basilar artery

Abstract

To investigate the therapeutic effect of blade needle therapy for cervicogenic dizziness (CD) and changes of blood flow of vertebral artery in patients with CD. A total of 60 patients with CD were equally randomized into medication (16 women and 14 men, 38.9±10.9 years in age) group and blade needle group (17 women and 13 men, 40.1±12.4 years in age). Patients of the blade needle group were treated by performing blade needle stimulation (longitudinal cutting along the musculoaponeurotic layer) to the tender points (attachment points) of the bilateral superior and inferior oblique muscles of the head, major and minor posterior cephalic rectus, about 2/3 of suboccipital nuchal line, and near the cervical processes of C1-C2 segments. The treatment was conducted once every 3 days for 15 days. Patients of the medication group were ordered to take Flunarizine Hydrochloride capsules (10 mg) once every night for 15 days. Transcranial Doppler was used to measure changes of mean blood flow velocities of the left vertebral artery (LVA), right vertebral artery (RVA), and basilar artery (BA) before and after the treatment. The therapeutic effect was assessed according to the Criteria for Diagnosis and Therapeutic Effect Evaluation of Syndromes or Illnesses of Traditional Chinese Medicine (1994) and the Assessment Scale for Symptoms and Function of Cervicogenic Dizziness (2017). Following the treatment, of the two 30 cases in the medication and blade needle groups, 5 (16.7%) and 7 (23.3%) were cured, 16 (53.3%) and 20 (66.7%) were improved in their symptoms, 9 (30.0%) and 3 (10.0%) failed, with the effective rate being 70.0% and 90.0%, respectively. The effective rate of the blade needle was significantly superior to that of the medication (P<0.05). The scores of vertigo, neck-should pain, daily living and work, psychology, social adaptation, and total score of the assessment scale, as well as the average blood flow velocities of LVA, RVA and BA were considerably increased in both groups in comparison with their own pre-treatment (P<0.05), and obviously higher in the blade needle group than in the medication group (P<0.05). Blade needle treatment has a good clinical effect in the treatment of CD patients, which is probably associated with its function in increasing blood perfusion of the brain tissue, and thus being worthy of clinical application.