[Infraoccipital needle-knife for cervical vertigo]

Area of Science:

• Integrative and Complementary Medicine
• Neurology
• Orthopedics

Background:

• Cervical vertigo is a condition causing dizziness due to neck issues.
• Traditional treatments include massage, but efficacy can vary.
• Novel therapeutic approaches are needed to improve patient outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the clinical effectiveness of infraoccipital needle-knife therapy versus traditional massage for treating cervical vertigo.
• To evaluate symptom improvement and recurrence rates between the two treatment groups.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 366 patients with cervical vertigo.
• Patients were assigned to either the needle-knife group (183 cases) or the massage group (176 cases) after exclusions.
• The Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) score was used to assess outcomes at multiple time points post-treatment.

Main Results:

• The needle-knife group demonstrated a significantly higher total effective rate (92.3%) compared to the massage group (85.2%).
• Infraoccipital needle-knife therapy led to superior improvements in DHI scores at immediate post-treatment and at 3 and 6 months.
• No significant difference in DHI score improvement or recurrence rates was observed between the groups at 12 months.

Conclusions:

• Infraoccipital needle-knife therapy is an effective treatment for cervical vertigo, providing significant short-term benefits.
• Massage is also effective but shows less pronounced improvement in the initial treatment period.
• Both treatments had similar long-term efficacy and recurrence rates at one year.