Electroacupuncture therapy for change of pain in classical trigeminal neuralgia

Classical trigeminal neuralgia (CTN) is a kind of trigeminal neuralgia which is due to neurovascular compression. The common neurological treatment CTN drug called carbamazepine is the main measure, although it usually has side effects and a high-rate of relapse. As a critical alternative therapy, electroacupuncture (EA) has been shown to benefit for neuropathic pain. The aims of this study are to observe the therapeutic effect and safety of EA for CTN, to evaluate whether EA has the advantage over carbamazepine in the analgesia of CTN. Furthermore, we would to establish a standardized, effective, and convenient therapy program of EA.

One hundred twenty patients diagnosed with CTN will be randomized for a 4-week intervention. The interventions will be different according to the four groups (EA + carbamazepine group, sham EA + carbamazepine group, EA + placebo group and sham EA + placebo group). EA therapy will be performed in specific acupoints with a dilute wave (2/100 Hz) for 60 minutes. Carbamazepine tablets will be taken orally with 0.1 g each time, thrice daily. Sham EA and placebo intervention will not receive EA and drug treatment. The main outcomes are the change from baseline intensity of pain at 6 months (pain evaluation by visual analogue score) and the change from baseline brief introduction of 2-week pain to evaluate pain comprehensively. The data management and statistical analysis will be conducted by third party statisticians. Incidence of adverse events will be investigated.

Ethics approval was obtained from the Clinical Trial Ethics Committee of The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (NO. ZSLL-KY-2017-033) and Jiaxing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NO. 2018-JZLK-002). The results will be disseminated by presentation at peer-reviewed journals.