Acupuncture for nasal congestion: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical pilot study
Item
Title
Acupuncture for nasal congestion: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical pilot study
Date
2009
Research Type
RCT
Keywords
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Nasal congestion is one of the most common complaints dealt with in otorhinolaryngology. Side effects of decongestants are frequently seenin patients with chronic nasal congestion. This leads to an increasing demand of alternative treatments such as acupuncture. Future studies on acupuncture should aim at objectifying effects by both physical measuring and double blinding. Therefore, we were interested in whether these effects can potentially be measured as increase in nasal airflow (NAF) in ventus ("wind") disease of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).METHODS: Twenty-four patients with a history of nasal congestion due to hypertrophic inferior turbinates or chronic sinusitis without polyposis wereadditionally diagnosed according to the Heidelberg model of TCM. They were asked to score the severity of their nasal congestion on a visual analog scale(VAS). The acupuncturist was blinded according to the Heidelberg blinding assay. NAF was measured by using active anterior rhinomanometry (ARM).Specific verum acupoints according to the Chinese medical diagnosis were tested against nonspecific control acupoints. VAS and NAF were scored andmeasured before and 15 and 30 minutes after acupuncture.RESULTS: Control acupuncture showed a significant improvement in VAS and a deterioration of NAF. Verum acupuncture showed highly significantimprovements in VAS and NAF. In addition, verum acupuncture improved NAF and VAS significantly over time.CONCLUSION: Our control and verum acupoints fulfill the condition of a control and verum treatment, respectively. Measuring NAF by RRM and scoringVAS are possible and reflect acupuncture effects in vivo
has health condition studied
Respiratory Tract Diseases
has study population number
24
has duration
N/A