[A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Treatment of Lumbar Disc Herniation-induced Sciatica by Acupuncture Stimulation of Sciatic Nerve Trunk].

Objective: To observe the efficacy of acupuncture stimulation of the sciatic nerve trunk in the treatment of patients suffering from sciatica induced by lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

Methods: A total of 60 LDH sciatica patients met the inclusion criteria were randomly divided into treatment group and control group, with 30 cases in each. Patients of the treatment group were treated by directly needling the sciatic nerve and routine acupuncture of -points, Lumbar Jiaji (EX-B 2), Dachangshu (BL 28), etc., and those of the control group treated by simple routine acupuncture. The treatment was conducted once a day, 5 times a week, 4 weeks altogether. The clinical effect was evaluated according to the "Standards for Diagnosis and Therapeutic Effect Evaluation of Syndromes of Chinese Medicine" and the pain intensity was assessed by using simplified Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) containing pain rating index (PRI), visual analogue scale (VAS) and present pain intensity (PPI).

Results: After the treatment, of the two 30 cases of LDH sciatica patients in the control and treatment groups, 11 and 18 were cured, 7 and 7 experienced marked improvement, 10 and 4 were effective, 2 and 1 was invalid, with the effective rate being 93.3% and 96.7%, respectively. The cured+markedly effective rate of the treatment group was significantly higher than that of the control group (<0.05, 83.3% vs 60.0%). Compared with pre-treatment, the scores of PRI, VAS and PPI were evidently lowered in both groups (<0.01), and the effect of the treatment group was notably better than that of the control group (<0.01).

Conclusions: Acupuncture stimulation of the sciatic nerve trunk is effective in relieving sciatica in LDH patients, and is superior to simple routine acupuncture in the clinical efficacy.