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Review
. 2018 Sep;7(3):219-230.
doi: 10.1016/j.imr.2018.01.002. Epub 2018 Jan 31.

Clinical effects of acupressure on neck pain syndrome (nakchim): a systematic review

Chan-Young Kwon  1 , Boram Lee  2
Affiliations
Review

Clinical effects of acupressure on neck pain syndrome (nakchim): a systematic review

Chan-Young Kwon et al. Integr Med Res. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Nakchim is a kind of neck pain syndrome that causes neck pain and stiffness without obvious trauma in East Asian traditional medicine. We aimed to summarize and critically evaluate the evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of acupressure on nakchim.

Methods: We searched eight databases for studies published up to August 29, 2017. Clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of acupressure on nakchim were included. The acupressure methods of included studies were divided into proximal acupressure performed on acupuncture points located in neck and shoulder, and distal acupressure performed on acupuncture points located in other areas. Overall clinical effective rate (CER) and immediately cured rate (ICR), which means rate of the symptom totally resolved after one treatment session, were calculated as mean percentage with 95% confidence interval. All included studies were assessed for methodological quality.

Results: Two case studies and 13 case series with 1037 participants were included, and 17 types of proximal acupuncture points and 14 types of distal acupuncture points were used. The most commonly used proximal and distal acupuncture points were GB20 and GB39, respectively. The CER in one study using both proximal and distal acupressure was 100%. The CER and ICR in studies using only proximal acupressure was 95.65% and 71.61%, respectively. The CER and ICR in studies using only distal acupressure was 99.37% and 69.08%, respectively. Eight studies performed simple acupressure technique using one acupuncture point, of which SI11, GB39, BL57, and TE3 were used. None of the studies reported adverse events.

Conclusion: This review suggests that acupressure may be effective on nakchim. However, it is not conclusive due to low methodological quality and low evidence level of included studies.

Keywords: Acupressure; Neck pain; Oriental medicine.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The PRISMA flow chart of the literature screening and selection process.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The clinical effect of Acupressure on Nakchim. Abbreviations: CER, clinical effective rate; ICR, immediately cured rate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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