Effects of different acupuncture methods combined with routine rehabilitation on gait of stroke patients

BACKGROUND Stroke refers to a group of cerebrovascular diseases associated with organic braininjury. It is characterized by the sudden and rapid onset of focal or diffusedysfunction. In recent years, in addition to routine treatment, Chinese medicineacupuncture has been administered to patients with hemiplegia, and it can beconsidered a new treatment for rehabilitation.AIM To investigate the effects of eye acupuncture needle retention and bodyacupuncture combined with routine rehabilitation on gait performance andplantar pressure in patients recovering from stroke.METHODS Thirty-two stroke patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly dividedinto an experimental group and a control group, with 16 patients in each group.Both groups underwent routine rehabilitation. The experimental group wastreated by eye acupuncture needle retention, and the control group was treated bybody acupuncture. Before and after 4 wk of treatment, both groups underwentkinematic and plantar pressure synchronous tests to assess gait performance.RESULTS The step length, gait speed, step frequency, joint angles of the lower limbs, andground reaction force impulse in the anterior region of the affected foot in bothgroups significantly increased from before to after treatment (P < 0.05);the center of mass displacement, peak pressure values, and impulse in the anterior region ofthe healthy foot and posterior regions of both the affected and healthy feetsignificantly decreased from before to after treatment (P < 0.05). The patients inthe experimental group showed greater improvement in the following parametersthan the control group: Step length, gait speed, step frequency, lower extremityjoint angles, center of gravity displacement, and peak pressure values andimpulse in the anterior and posterior regions of both the affected and healthy feet(P < 0.05).CONCLUSION Eye acupuncture needle retention and body acupuncture combined with routinerehabilitation can effectively improve the gait performance of patients recoveringfrom stroke. Between these two treatments, eye acupuncture needle retentioncombined with routine treatment is better than body acupuncture, and it can beconsidered a practical and effective clinical treatment.

Gait analysis of children with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy

An experiment was carried out in the key laboratory for Technique Diagnosis and Function Assessment of Winter Sports of China to investigate the differences in gait characteristics between healthy children and children with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy. With permission of their parents, 200 healthy children aged 3 to 6 years in the kindergarten of Northeastern University were enrolled in this experiment. Twenty children aged 3 to 6 years with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy from Shengjing Hospital, China were also enrolled in this experiment. Standard data were collected by simultaneously recording gait information from two digital cameras. DVracker was used to analyze the standard data. The children with hemiplegic cerebra palsy had a longer gait cycle, slower walking speed, and longer support phase than did the healthy children. The support phase was longer than the swing phase in the children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. There were significant differences in the angles of the hip, knee, and ankle joint between children with cerebral palsy and healthy children at the moment of touching the ground and buffering, and during pedal extension. Children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy had poor motor coordination during walking, which basically resulted in a short stride, high stride frequency to maintain speed, more obvious swing, and poor stability.