Research Archive

A Taiwanese study compared rehabilitation therapy plus non-needling electro stimulation of acupuncture points with rehabilitation therapy alone in the treatment of post-CVA hemiplegia. Electro-acupuncture was given 5 times per week. Patients who received electro-acupuncture had shorter hospital stays and better neurological and functional outcomes. The authors report that this study contrasts with ...

A Hong Kong study has cast doubt on the benefits of acupuncture for stroke recovery.  All 106 patients in the study (3-15 days after stroke) received standard stroke care (physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy and medical and nursing care) whilst a randomised subgroup also received Chinese manual acupuncture (35 treatment sessions using manual acupuncture on 10 main acupoints over 10 ...

A combination of electro-acupuncture and muscle strengthening exercises can significantly reduce the spasticity of the wrist joint in stroke survivors. In a crossover trial, seven chronic stroke subjects (average age 63) received two six-week treatment regimens: combined electro-acupuncture and strengthening twice a week, and strengthening twice a week only. Wrist spasticity was reduced significan ...

The effects of electroacupuncture for patients with ischaemic stroke have been examined in a randomised controlled study. Sixty-three patients with first-ever ischaemic stroke were divided into study and control groups. Both groups underwent a conventional rehabilitation program and the study group received an additional eight sessions of electroacupuncture over a period of one month. Motor perfor ...

A Korean study suggests that low frequency electroacupuncture (EA) may be more helpful for motor recovery after stroke than high frequency EA. Sixty-two patients with motor dysfunction, hospitalised one week to one month from onset of ischaemic stroke, were treated with 2Hz or 120Hz EA over a two week period. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs, measurements of electrical potential recorded in muscles f ...

A US pilot study has compared improvement in upper-limb motor function in chronic stroke survivors who received a combination of acupuncture and strength training, with that of subjects who received strength training alone. Ten chronic stroke patients with moderate or severe wrist muscle spasticity were recruited for the study, which used a crossover design with a random order of either combined e ...

Investigators in Taiwan have found that acupuncture has an immediate effect on improving balance in stroke patients. In a single-blinded, randomised, controlled study, 30 stroke patients were allocated to experimental and control groups. All participants had needles inserted at Baihui DU-20 and at four surrounding points (1.5 cun anterior, posterior and lateral to Baihui DU-20) for 20 minutes. In ...