Abstract

Background: Acupuncture, consisting of the insertion of needles in the specific acupuncture points, and neural therapy by Huneke (NT), which is the subcutaneous or intramuscular injection of a local anesthetic in trigger/tender points almost always on acupuncture points, are two potentially effective therapeutic techniques in the treatment of the painful shoulder. The purpose of this retrospective study is to compare the short and long-term results of these two reflexology techniques in the treatment of the painful shoulder.

Methods: Pain related results obtained from 1982 to 2007 from two groups, one treated with acupuncture (N=47), the other treated with Neural Therapy (NT) by Huneke (N=228), have been compared assessing two indexes of analgesic effectiveness, the Subjective Pain Relief Percentage (SPRP) every 3 months for 4 years, and the Time of average persistence of the result, in cases successfully treated and with follow-up of at least 2 years (TAPR≥2y).

Results: The two groups are comparable for pain duration, number of sessions, and duration of the treatment cycle, even though the “NT” group is older. The analgesic results of the two groups were not statistically different, but the majority of indexes of analgesic effectiveness examined resulted better in the “NT” group. In particular, the initial SPRP was 63.9% (acupuncture) and 66.2% (NT), whereas the TAPR≥2y was 27.4 months (acupuncture) and 37.8 months (NT).

Conclusion: Both therapeutic techniques examined are potentially effective. Neventheless, neural therapy has beeen detected slightly superior, especially after the two years of follow-up.

Keywords:Acupuncture; Painful shoulder; Neural therapy; Local anesthetics