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Efficacy of Acupuncture for Discogenic Sciatica

G

Guang'anmen Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Sciatica

Treatments

Procedure: Acupuncture
Procedure: Sham acupuncture

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02770963
2016010401

Details and patient eligibility

About

This trial is designed to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture on pain relief for patients with discogenic sciatica compared with sham acupuncture.

Full description

Background: Sciatica is primarily caused by herniated discs with nerve-root compression. Acupuncture may effectively relieve the pain of discogenic sciatica, but the evidence is limited.

Methods/Design: Sixty patients with discogenic sciatica will be recruited and randomized to receive acupuncture or sham-acupuncture at a 1:1 ratio. Patients in both groups will receive treatment 3 times per week for 4 weeks. The following acupoints will be used: Dachang shu (BL 25), Shenshu (BL 23), Weizhong (BL 40), and Chengshan (BL 57).

Enrollment

60 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

18 to 75 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

  1. Unilateral leg pain diagnosed as discogenic sciatica;
  2. Sciatica patients with an average leg pain VAS of 40 mm or higher in the last 24 hours;
  3. Aged 18 to 75 years;
  4. Leg pains that correlate with CT or MRI findings of lumbar disc herniation;
  5. Patients who agree to follow the trial protocol.

Exclusion criteria

  1. Severe cases with central or giant or ruptured lumbar disc herniation, cauda equina syndrome, foot drop, or surgery requirements;
  2. Progressive neurological symptoms after 3 months of strict conservative treatment (e.g., nerve root adhesion, crossed straight-leg testing, or obvious muscle atrophy);
  3. Severe cardiovascular, liver, kidney, hematopoietic system diseases, autoimmune diseases, or poor nutritional status;
  4. Subjects with cognitive impairment;
  5. Pregnancy;
  6. Subjects who received acupuncture for sciatica within the past month.

Trial design

Primary purpose

Treatment

Allocation

Randomized

Interventional model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

Double Blind

60 participants in 2 patient groups

Acupuncture
Experimental group
Description:
Shenshu (BL23) on bilateral sides and Dachangshu (BL25), Weizhong (BL40), and Chengshan (BL57) on the affected side will be applied. Huatuo Brand needle (0.3\*75 mm) will be used for BL25 and Huatuo Brand needle (0.3\*40mm) will be used for BL23, BL40 and BL57.
Treatment:
Procedure: Acupuncture
Sham acupuncture
Sham Comparator group
Description:
The acupoints will be the same as the acupuncture group. Specially designed sham needles (0.3\*25 mm) will be used . The sham needle consists of a needle handle, needle body, blunt tip and a sterile polyethylene cylindrical foam pad (identical to the pads in the acupuncture group).
Treatment:
Procedure: Sham acupuncture

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Central trial contact

Zhishun Liu; Qin Yao

Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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