Fu's subcutaneous needling versus massage for chronic non-specific low-back pain: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Background: Chronic non-specific low back pain (NLBP) affects people of all ages and pose a serious threat to human health. Fu's subcutaneous needling (FSN) has been reported to be effective in treating such disorders, but the control group is lacking. The aim of this randomized parallel study is to compare the long-term efficiency of FSN therapy with massage therapy for treatment of NLBP.

Methods: A total of 60 chronic NLBP patients recruited from Yongchuan Hospital of Chongqing Medical University were randomly assigned to the FSN therapy group or massage therapy group. The main prognostic indicators included pain intensity measured on the visual analog scale (VAS), functional outcomes assessed by the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scoring system, functional disability estimated using Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and quality of life evaluated by Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36). These indicators were evaluated at baseline, post-treatment, 3 months after treatment, and 12 months after treatment.

Results: After 12 months of follow-up, we found that the 2 treatment regimens exhibited similarly favorable results in terms of all prognostic indicators in comparison with their respective baseline data (all P<0.01). However, compared with the massage group, the FSN group showed more significant improvements in VAS, JOA, and ODI at all follow-up time points, as well as SF-36 at post-treatment and 12 months after treatment (all P<0.05).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that FSN therapy is significantly more effective than massage therapy in the improvement of pain intensity, functional outcomes, functional disability, and quality of life in a long-term follow-up. However, future studies with larger sample sizes are needed to corroborate the long-term efficiency of FSN therapy for chronic NLBP.

Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2100050866.