Friday 19 October 2012

Acupuncture as effective as physiotherapy in post-stroke rehabilitation

In a recent post by the Journal of Chinese Medicine new evidence suggests that acupuncture may be useful in post stroke rehabilitation. Acupuncture is used routinely in China to aid post stroke victims. The evidence in my view suggests that the combination of both acupuncture and physiotherapy would be the most advantageous to patients care and well being The Journal of Chinese Medicine states the following.

 "A large multicentre RCT from China has found that acupuncture plus conventional care was similar in effectiveness to physiotherapy treatment plus conventional care for post-stroke rehabilitation. The research involved a total of 310 patients randomly divided into three groups. All received conventional care as needed, including psychological counseling, standard nursing care and daily medical evaluation. In addition, they received either acupuncture, physiotherapy, or acupuncture plus physiotherapy, once a day, six days a week for four weeks. Compared to baseline, participants in all groups improved their scores in physical performance, daily functioning and neurological deficit by the end of week two, and by the end of week four these scores had improved further. The study found no statistically significant differences in outcomes between the three groups after treatment, suggesting that acupuncture and physiotherapy were equally effective as adjunctive treatments and that the combination of acupuncture and physiotherapy, in addition to conventional treatment, did not result in synergistic effects. (An effectiveness study comparing acupuncture, physiotherapy, and their combination in poststroke rehabilitation: a multicentered, randomized, controlled clinical trial. Altern Ther Health Med. 2012 May-Jun;18(3):8-14)."

3 comments:

  1. physiotherapist is allocated to each inpatient ward and treats all patients requiring physiotherapy input for their related problems...
    Eye Surgery Hospital

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  2. Physiotherapy is the best way for stroke treatment. Treatment is available throughout the day at one of physiotherapy clinics.

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  3. Stroke patient is already in the risk of getting the attack and by using a lot of medicines as well he needs something non-medicated and here comes the need of a Physiotherapy North Ryde to treat such problems of the patients.

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