Effect of acupuncture and rehabilitation training on barthel index in early-stage of stroke cases

Objective  To study the effect of combined acupuncture and rehabilitation training on early-stage Barthel index of ischemic stroke cases. Method Fifty ischemic stroke cases were randomized into a treatment group of 24 cases and control group of 26 cases. In addition to routine internal treatment methods, rehabilitation training was applied to cases in the control group, and combined acupuncture and rehabilitation training were applied to cases in the treatment group. Warming and reinforcing manipulations were applied to Jianyu (LI 15), Quchi (LI 11), Hegu (LI 4), Yanglingquan (GB 34), Yinlingquan (SP 9), Zusanli (ST 36), and Sanyinjiao (SP 6), 20 min of needle retaining for each point in one treatment. Then the scores of clinical neurological impairment and Barthel index of stroke cases were evaluated before the treatment and 3 weeks after respectively   Results  The significant progress and progress cases in the treatment group were 14 and 12 respectively, whereas that in the control group were 6 and 11 respectively, coupled with 7 cases of no progress. The therapeutic effect in the treatment is substantially better than the control group (P<0.05). There was no significant difference (P>0.05) in neurological impairment and scores of Barthel index of the two groups before the treatment, whereas significant difference (P<0.05) after the treatment. The scores of neurological impairment in the treatment group were significantly reduced after the treatment (P<0.05), and the scores of Barthel index were significantly increased (P<0.05). Conclusion  Combined acupuncture and rehabilitation training can produce significantly better effect on early neurological impairment and Barthel index of stroke cases than rehabilitation training alone. Author: ZHANG Ning-xia (1968–), female, associate chief physician, doctor of medicine