Fire-needle therapy for deglutition disorders in post-stroke pseudobulbar palsy: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

To observe the clinical efficacy of fire-needle therapy in treating deglutition disorders due to pseudobulbar palsy in the remission stage of stroke. Sixty-two eligible subjects were divided into a fire-needle group and a rehabilitation group by a simple randomization method at a ratio of 1:1. The two groups received same basic intervention; in addition, the fire-needle group received fire-needle treatment, while the rehabilitation group received rehabilitation training. The two groups of subjects all received a 3-week treatment and were evaluated by the dysphagia severity rating scale (DSRS), modified Mann assessment of swallow ability (MMASA) and Kubota Toshio swallow test (KTST) before and after the intervention. The complications and adverse events occurred during the trial were recorded. The data were statistically analyzed. At the third week, the DSRS, MMASA and KTST scores changed significantly compared with the baseline in both groups (P<0.05), and the changes in the fire-needle group were more significant than those in the rehabilitation group (P<0.05). The between-group comparison at the third week showed that the therapeutic efficacy in the fireneedle group was superior to that in the rehabilitation group (P<0.05). Fire-needle therapy can obviously change the DSRS, MMASA and KTST scores in pseudobulbar palsy in the remission stage of stroke, and significantly enhance the therapeutic efficacy of the treatment of deglutition disorders in this stage.