Effects of Acupotomy on Pain and Functional Improvement in Acute Low Back Pain Patients: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Objectives The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of Acupotomy on the pain reduction and functional improvement of patients with Acute low back pain. Methods We studied 60 patients with Acute low back pain with Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) 5 or higher in admission and had admitted to Department of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation of Daejeon University from March 1, 2017 to October 31, 2017. 30 patients had received Acupotomy combined Korean Medicine treatment(such as acupuncture, moxabustion, herbal medicine, etc) and the other 30 had received Korean Medicine treatment only. The analysis was conducted as a retrospective study which analyzes the patient''s medical records. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 24 program. We used NRS to evaluate pain reduction, used Range of Motion (ROM) and Roland Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ) to evaluate function improvement, and used EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) and EuroQoL-Visual Analogue Scale (EQ-VAS) to assess quality of life. Finally, a five-point Likert scale was used to assess treatment satisfaction. Results The analysis revealed that patients who were treated with Acupotomy showed statistically significant NRS reduction, improvement of ROM and RMDQ, improvement of EQ-5D and EQ-VAS and satisfaction compared to those who just recevied Korean Medicine treatment. Conclusions In conclusion, we found that the Acupotomy showed a positive effect on pain resolving, functional rehabilitation and quality of life in patients with Acute low back pain. (J Korean Med Rehabil 2018;28(2):91-104)