Effect of Acupuncture on Recovery of Consciousness in Patients with Acute Traumatic Brain Injury: A Multi-Institutional Cohort Study

Chun-Chieh Lin; Hsing-Yu Chen; Chu-Yao Tseng; Chien-Chung Yang

doi:10.3390/healthcare11162267

Effect of Acupuncture on Recovery of Consciousness in Patients with Acute Traumatic Brain Injury: A Multi-Institutional Cohort Study

Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Aug 11;11(16):2267. doi: 10.3390/healthcare11162267.

Authors

Chun-Chieh Lin¹, Hsing-Yu Chen^{2

3

4}, Chu-Yao Tseng¹, Chien-Chung Yang^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Acupuncture and Traumatology, Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 33378, Taiwan.
² Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 330036, Taiwan.
³ Division of Chinese Internal Medicine, Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 33378, Taiwan.
⁴ School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes cognitive dysfunction and long-term impairments. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of acupuncture on the recovery of consciousness in TBI patients. This is a retrospective, multi-institutional cohort study. We enrolled patients with newly diagnosed TBI from 1 January 2007 to 3 August 2021, aged 20 years and older, from the Chang Gung Research Database (CGRD). The outcome was defined based on the difference between the first and last Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). A total of 2163 TBI patients were analyzed, and 237 (11%) received acupuncture in the treatment period. Generally, the initial GCS was lower in the acupuncture users (11 vs. 14). For the results of our study, a higher proportion of acupuncture patients achieved significant improvement (GCS differences ≥ 3) compared to non-acupuncture users (46.0% vs. 22.4%, p-value < 0.001). The acupuncture users had a 2.11 times higher chance of achieving a significant improvement when considering all assessable covariates (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2, 11, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.31-3.40; p-value = 0.002). Using 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM), the acupuncture users still had better outcomes than the non-acupuncture users (45.3% vs. 32.9%, p-value = 0.020). In conclusion, this study suggests that acupuncture treatment may be beneficial for TBI patients.

Keywords: Chang Gung Research Database; Glasgow Coma Scale; acupuncture; cohort study; consciousness; traumatic brain injury.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Chang Gung Medical Research Foundation, Taiwan (grant numbers: CMRPG5M0161 and BMRPJ13) and the Maintenance Project of the Center for Big Data Analytics and Statistics (Grant CLRPG3D0049) at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.