Effectiveness and Safety of Acupotomy Treatment on Shoulder Pain: 25 Multicenter Retrospective Study

Hyocheong Chae; Hongmin Chu; Junghun Lee; Hagdong Kim; Dongha Kim; Sebong Park; Kwanghwan Lim; Minsu Jeong; Kyungho Kang; Gyeongchan Kim; Joo Hyun Lee; Sehun Jung; Jaehyo Kim; Yongjoo Kim; Myungseok Ryu; Korean Medical Society of Acupotomology KM Doctors Group

doi:10.2147/JPR.S398711

Effectiveness and Safety of Acupotomy Treatment on Shoulder Pain: 25 Multicenter Retrospective Study

J Pain Res. 2023 Apr 22:16:1367-1380. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S398711. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Hyocheong Chae^#^{1

2}, Hongmin Chu^#^{1

3}, Junghun Lee¹, Hagdong Kim¹, Dongha Kim¹, Sebong Park¹, Kwanghwan Lim¹, Minsu Jeong¹, Kyungho Kang¹, Gyeongchan Kim¹, Joo Hyun Lee¹, Sehun Jung¹, Jaehyo Kim⁴, Yongjoo Kim⁵, Myungseok Ryu^{1

6}; Korean Medical Society of Acupotomology KM Doctors Group

Affiliations

¹ Departmental Research Committee, Korean Medical Society of Acupotomology, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
² Sunyujae Korean Medicine Clinic, Yongin, Republic of Korea.
³ Department of Korean Internal Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Department of Meridian & Acupoint, College of Korean Medicine, Wonkwang University, Iksan, Republic of Korea.
⁵ College of Korean Medicine, Sangji University, Wonju, Republic of Korea.
⁶ Clinic Department, Daemyeong Korean Medicine Clinic, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objective: Shoulder pain is a common complaint in outpatient clinics and can result in an inability to work or perform household activities, leading to significant socioeconomic burden. Acupotomy, as one kind acupuncture that has flat knife-shaped tip, has been widely used for treating shoulder pain. However, despite the widespread use of acupotomy in primary medical institutions, large sample size clinical trials have not sufficiently been performed. In this respect, this multi-center retrospective study aimed to investigate the effectiveness and safety of acupotomy in reducing shoulder pain and disability using data from multi-center primary care clinics.

Methods: This study was conducted in 25 Korean medicine clinics affiliated with the Korean Medical Society of Acupotomology, Republic of Korea, from August 2021 to December 2021. The medical records of patients who visited the clinics complaining of shoulder pain were gathered, and among them were those of patients who underwent acupotomy treatment and those who received acupuncture combined therapy. The Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), SPADI (Shoulder Pain and Disability Index), Range of Motion (ROM) and adverse event were evaluated at each visit. A linear mixed-effects models and paired t-test were used to identify the effectiveness of the treatment.

Results: Overall analysis showed that the NRS score of patients decreased from 4.95 ± 1.97 before treatment to 3.78 ± 2.03 after treatment (n = 332, difference in NRS score, 1.17; 95% CI: 0.96-1.38, t = 10.89 p < 0.001). SPADI score decreased from 19.05 ± 20.44 at baseline before treatment to 12.12 ± 17.26 after the last visit, which was statistically significant (n = 332, mean difference in SPADI score, 6.93; 95% CI: 4.71-9.15, t = 6.150, p < 0.001). No serious adverse event was reported in both groups.

Conclusion: This study showed the effectiveness of acupotomy therapy for shoulder pain, and as the treatment sessions increased, the effect of pain reduction and shoulder function improvement were also increased.

Keywords: acupotomy; multicenter study; retrospective study; shoulder pain.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by a grant of the project, Guideline Center for Korean Medicine, National Institute for Korean Medicine Development (HI16C0275). The study sponsors had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.