Clinical curative effect of electric acupuncture on acute cerebral infarction: a randomized controlled multicenter trial.

OBJECTIVE:
To examine whether electric acupuncture can improve the daily life of patients with ischemic cerebral apoplexy at acute stage.
METHODS:
A stratified-block randomized controlled multicenter trial was designed for this study. Totally 340 patients with acute ischemic cerebral apoplexy were randomly divided into an electric acupuncture group and a control group. In the electric acupuncture group, 170 patients were treated with electric acupuncture and routine therapy, and 170 patients in the control group with routine therapy alone. Major indexes for judging curative effect were Barthel index at 3- and 6- months follow-up visits and number of re-hospitalized patients. Minor indexes for judging curative effect were change in the score for nervous dysfunction at 4 and 12 weeks follow-up visits and number of patients persisting in rehabilitation treatment with acupuncture during follow-up visit.
RESULTS:
Baseline data at the time of case selection between the two groups were similar. The odds ratio (OR) was 0.92, and the 95% confidence interval (CI) was 0.49-1.73 in disabled rate and 0.73 and 0.51-1.05 in the number of re-hospitalized patients in the electric acupuncture group at 6-month follow up visit compared with the control group. There was no difference in the score for nervous dysfunction at the end of 12-week follow-up visit between the two groups. The score for nervous dysfunction at the end of 4-week treatment in the electric acupuncture group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.05). The number of patients discharged from hospital who persisted in rehabilitation treatment with acupuncture in the acupuncture group was significantly higher than that in the control group.
CONCLUSION:
Using electric acupuncture to treat patients with acute ischemic cerebral apoplexy can effectively improve the nervous dysfunction scores after 4-week treatment and their ability to deal with daily life after 6-month follow-up visit. Systematic treatment with acupuncture may also reduce the number of patients with secondary apoplexy.
PMID: 25618965