Collateral-pricking and blood-letting cupping combined with electroacupuncture for post-herpetic neuralgia

Objective:To explore the clinical efficacy of collateral-pricking and blood-letting cupping combined with surrounding needling technique electroacupuncture in the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia(PHN).Methods:Seventy-two patients with post-herpetic neuralgia were randomized into observation group and control group.Of the 72 cases,12 cases fell off,so finally 30 cases in each group.The observation group was treated with collateral-pricking and blood-letting cupping combined with surrounding needling technique electroacupuncture,while the control group was treated simply with pregabalin capsules for 20 consecutive days.On the basis of the western medication pregabalin capsules,the same as that of the control group,collateral-pricking and blood-letting cupping combined with electroacupuncture in a surrounding needling technique,was adopted for the observation group,once every two days,ten days as one course of treatment,a total of two courses.The immediate visual analogue scale(VAS)before and after treatment were observed in the two groups,and their clinical effects were compared.Results:The VAS scores of PHN patients in the two groups after treatment were lower than those before treatment(both P<0.01),and the scores of observation group were lower than those of control group(P<0.05).The total effective rate of the observation group was 86.7%,higher than 73.3% of the control group.Conclusion:The clinical effect of collateral-pricking and blood-letting cupping combined with electroacupuncture is relatively satisfactory in the treatment of post-herpetic neuralgia.