[Acupuncture (dry needle) versus neural therapy (local anesthesia) in the treatment of benign back pain. Immediate and long-term results]

Abstract

Aim: A retrospective study of benign low back pain, comparing the early and long-term results obtained by means of acupuncture and Huneke's neural-therapy is presented.

Methods: Two groups, (dry needling group and neural-therapy group) consisting of 104 and 152 patients respectively, were compared for age, pain duration, treatment length, number of sessions and initial intensity of the pain.

Results: The age and pain duration resulted significantly higher in the neural-therapy group; the percentage of subjective improvement proved to be greater for neural-therapy, even if not in a statistically significant manner, both immediately after therapy (70.4% and 74.8%) and at all the time intervals studied (every 3 months until 4 years, when possible). Similar results have been obtained both in acute cases (pain duration shorter than 6 weeks) and in chronic ones (pain lasting at least 6 months).

Conclusion: In conclusion, this study shows a slight, but not statistically significant, preference for neural-therapy, subjectively considered by the patient more effective than acupuncture in 49 out of 51 comparisons carried out.