Sinew Acupuncture for Neck Pain: Randomized Controlled Trial

The University of Hong Kong (HKU)

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Neck Pain

Treatments: Device: Sham acupuncture; Device: Sinew acupuncture

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02834702

UHongKong-UW 15-456

Details and patient eligibility

About

The study aims to examine the efficacy and safety of sinew acupuncture for chronic mechanical neck pain (CMNP).

Full description

Objectives:

Sinew acupuncture is a superficial needling technique with the advantage of minimal pain, feasible manipulation, and no apparent adverse effects. The proposal aims to examine the efficacy and safety of sinew acupuncture for chronic mechanical neck pain (CMNP).

Hypothesis to be tested:

Sinew acupuncture can reduce pain intensity, and improve neck pain disability and health-related quality of life without significant side effects for CMNP subjects compared to a sham acupuncture treatment.

Design:

A randomized, subject- and assessor-blind, sham acupuncture-controlled clinical trial

Participants:

Subjects (N=130) will be randomized into sinew acupuncture or sham acupuncture group (in 1:1 ratio).

Study instrument:

Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Northwick Park Neck Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) and Short Form-36 (SF-36)

Intervention:

Sinew acupuncture group will receive five sessions of needling in two weeks. Sham group will receive the non-invasive treatment with the same procedures. All subjects are followed up for 4 weeks.

Main outcome measures:

VAS for neck pain intensity at week 3 serves as the primary outcome. VAS at other time points, NPQ score and SF-36 at week 1, 2, 3, and 6, and adverse events are analyzed as the secondary outcomes.

Data analysis:

Analysis will be on the 'intention to treat' principle. T-test and mixed-effect model analysis will be used to measure primary and secondary outcomes respectively.

Expected results:

Five sessions of sinew acupuncture treatment can significantly reduce neck pain intensity, and improve neck pain disability and quality of life without obvious side effects.

Enrollment: 130 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• (1) aged 18 years or above; (2) able to read and write Chinese; (3) the pain is located between the neck and shoulder regions and movement or palpation of the cervical region provokes the symptoms (18); (4) the pain has persisted for more than 3 months; (5) VAS (0 to 100 mm) pain score is ≥30 mm at baseline assessment; (6) no treatments (Chinese medicine, acupuncture, moxibustion, physiotherapies, medications, etc) intended for pain management have been received within the preceding two weeks.

Exclusion criteria

• (1) a history of fracture or surgery to the neck; (2) malignant tumor; (3) cervical congenital abnormality; (4) a severe psychiatric illness; (5) needle phobia; (6) acupuncture treatment in the preceding 3 months, and (7) other acupuncture contraindications as indicated in Hospital Authority Guideline on Safety in Acupuncture for Chinese Medicine Practitioners (Quality and Risk Sub-Committee, Hospital Authority, 2010).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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130 participants in 2 patient groups

Sinew acupuncture

Experimental group

Description:

Sinew acupuncture

Treatment:

Device: Sinew acupuncture

Sham acupuncture

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Sham acupuncture

Treatment:

Device: Sham acupuncture