The effect of Bo´s abdominal acupuncture combined with rehabilitation exercise on shoulder pain after stroke

Objective: To observe the clinical therapeutic efficacy and safety of Bo´s abdominal acupuncture combined with rehabilitation exercise in treating shoulder pain after stroke. Methods: seventy patients with shoulder pain after stroke were equally randomized into treatment group and control group. The treatment group was given Bo´s abdominal acupuncture and rehabilitation exercise, while the control group was offered rehabilitation exercise alone. Treatment was conducted for 2 weeks. The outcome measure was Visual Analogue Scale(VAS), Upper extremity section of Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) and Functional Independence Measure(FIM) administered before and after treatment. Results: VAS, FMA and FIM showed significant improvements in both groups after treatment. The treatment group showed significant improvement on the VAS scale of compared with that in the control group. No significant difference was observed on the FMA and FIM between the two groups. No serious adverse events were reported in this study. Conclusion: Both Bo´s abdominal acupuncture and rehabilitation exercise had effects on shoulder functional recovery but that Bo´s abdominal acupuncture combined with rehabilitation exercise showed more effective in relieving the shoulder pain than that rehabilitation exercise alone.