Acupuncture combined with western medicine reduces tinnitus

Objective: To compare the clinical efficacy of scraping needling technique combined with western medication and simple western medication for neurogenic tinnitus of kidney essence deficiency.

Methods: A total of 68 patients with neurogenic tinnitus of kidney essence deficiency were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, 34 cases in each group. In the control group, oral methylcobalamin tablets were given, 0.5 mg each time, 3 times a day; oral flunarizine hydrochloride capsules were given before bed, 5 mg each time, once a day, 4 weeks in total.

On the basis of the treatment as the control group, scraping needling technique was applied at Tinghui (GB 2), Yifeng (TE 17), Yangchi (TE 4) on the affected side and Shenshu (BL 23), Lieque (LU 7), 5 min each acupoint, once a day, 5 times a week for 4 weeks. Before treatment, 2, 4 weeks into treatment and 4 weeks after treatment (follow-up), the tinnitus severity score, tinnitus visual analogue scale (VAS) score and pure tone average (PTA) were observed, and the clinical efficacy was evaluated in the two groups.

Results: The tinnitus severity scores, VAS scores and PTA of each time point after treatment in the two groups were lower than those before treatment (P<0.05), and those in the observation group were lower than the control group (P<0.05). The total effective rates of each time point after treatment in the observation group were 50.0% (17/34), 79.4% (27/34), 79.4% (27/34), which were higher than 26.5% (9/34), 64.7% (22/34), 61.8% (21/34) in the control group (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Scraping needling technique combined with western medication could improve tinnitus severity, tinnitus volume and hearing in patients with neurogenic tinnitus of kidney essence deficiency, and its curative effect is better than simple western medication.

Reference: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36075594/

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About Attilio

Doctor of Chinese medicine, acupuncture expert and author of My Fertility Guide and My Pregnancy Guide.

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