Immediate Results Following Novel Single-Point Hand Acupuncture with Movement for Treatment of Musculoskeletal...

Single-point hand acupuncture with movement is a novel technique that can be used to provide immediate pain relief in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. It involves inserting just one needle along the second metacarpal bone, and then having the patient move through motions that were previously painful while retaining the needle. This study is a preliminary three-arm, single-blinded, randomized comparative trial looking at this technique compared with two control techniques.

Twenty-four patients were recruited in an outpatient musculoskeletal practice with neck, shoulder, low back, or hip pain. Patients were randomized to one of three treatment arms. The three treatment arms were verum single-point hand acupuncture with movement, single-point hand acupuncture without movement, and control acupuncture with movement. Range of motion (ROM) and numeric pain rating scale were recorded before and after treatment (about 10 min).

The combined results of all patients showed that the mean difference in post-treatment versus pretreatment ROM was 11.6 degrees and this was statistically significant (p = 0.0027). The mean difference in post-treatment versus pretreatment pain was -2.3 and this was statistically significant (p = 0.0000). There was no statistically significant mean difference between the single-point hand acupuncture with movement and the other two techniques. Also, there was no significant mean difference whether a de qi response was elicited or not.

Despite single-point hand acupuncture not being able to demonstrate superiority over the other techniques, it can still be a useful technique to learn, given its ease of use and wide applicability.