Trend of pharmacopuncture therapy for treating cervical disease in Korea

The purpose of this study is to analyze trends in domestic studies on pharmacopuncture therapy for treating cervical disease.

This study was carried out on original copies and abstracts of theses listed in databases or published until July 2014. The search was made on the Oriental medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System (OASIS) the National Digital Science Library (NDSL), and the Korean traditional knowledge portal. Search words were 'pain on cervical spine', 'cervical pain', 'ruptured cervical disk', 'cervical disc disorder', 'stiffness of the neck', 'cervical disk', 'whiplash injury', 'cervicalgia', 'posterior cervical pain', 'neck disability', 'Herniated Nucleus Pulposus (HNP)', and 'Herniated Intervertebral Disc (HIVD)'.

Twenty-five clinical theses related to pharmacopuncture were selected and were analyzed by year according to the type of pharmacopuncture used, the academic journal in which the publication appeared, and the effect of pharmacopuncture therapy.

The significant conclusions are as follows: (1) Pharmacopunctures used for cervical pain were Bee venom pharmacopuncture, Carthami-flos pharmacopuncture, Scolopendra pharmacopuncture, Ouhyul pharmacopuncturen, Hwangryun pharmacopuncture, Corpus pharmacopuncture, Soyeom pharmacopuncture, Hwangryunhaedoktang pharmacopuncture, Shinbaro phamacopuncture. (2) Randomized controlled trials showed that pharmacopuncture therapy combined with other methods was more effective. (3) In the past, studies oriented toward Bee venom pharmacopuncture were actively pursued, but the number of studies on various other types of pharmacopuncture gradually began to increase. (4) For treating a patient with cervical pain, the type of pharmacopuncture to be used should be selected based on the cause of the disease and the patient's condition.