Clinical effects of digital acupoint pressure combined with hot ironing for scapulohumeral periarthritis in Zhuang medicine

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of digital acupoint pressure combined with hot ironing of Zhuang medicine in the therapy of scapulohumeral periarthritis. Methods: 160 patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis were randomly divided into the treatment group and control group with 80 patients in each group. The treatment group was treated with digital acupoint pressure combined with hot ironing of Zhuang medicine. The control group was treated with intermediate frequency therapy apparatus. All the treatments were given once a day for 4 weeks, Then the effective rate as well as the scores of shoulder pain and joint inflammation,were calculated. Results: The shoulder pain score of the treatment group was 3.49±0.98, while that of control group was 5.33±1.26 (P 0.05). The shoulder joint inflammation score in the treatment group was higher than that of the control group (73.24±7.20 vs 60.71±10.46, P 0.05). these results suggested that 4 weeks of treatments improved the shoulder function. Moreover, the effective rate of the treatment group was higher than that of the control group (86.25% vs 63.75%). Conclusion: Digital acupoint pressure combined with hot ironing in Zhuang medicine could relieve joint pain of patients with scapulohumeral periarthritis and improve their shoulder mobility.