Neuropathic Pain and Spasticity Response to Traditional Acupuncture after Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Introduction: One of the most relevant disabilities is caused by spinal cord injury (SCI). Typical causes of spinal cord damage are trauma, disease, or congenital disorders. Tetraplegia is a paralysis results in the partial or total loss of use of all limbs and torso; paraplegia is similar but does not affect the arms. Pain and spasticity are common sequelae of SCI [1]. Both pain and spasticity can have a late onset and develop slowly over time after SCI, and once developed, they often become chronic. In this paper we have provided to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating SCI sequelae and summarize the potential mechanisms of acupuncture therapy. Method: We considered 30 patients with diagnosis of tetra or paraplegia after SCI complicated by neuropathic pain and spasticity. Neurologist trained in medical acupuncture conducted the therapeutic treatments. A specific set of acupuncture points was used in all sessions. Participants were treated for 8 sessions of acupuncture over 4 week’s period. Pain and spasticity were evaluated with Numeric Raiting Scale (VAS) (2) and the Modified Ashworth Scale [3] at the beginning of the first, the fourth an eighth treatment session. Results: 28 patients (93%) showed improvement in pain intensity and spasticity after two weeks of acupuncture treatment. The therapeutic effect continued until the eighth week of treatment. However, 15 patients (53,5%) reported an increase in spasticity and pain 2 months after acupuncture sessions. Conclusions: Acupuncture sessions using defined acupoint set reduced pain intentensity and spasticity in patients with SCI.