Electroacupuncture as a Complement to Usual Care for Patients With Non-acute Pain After Back Surgery

March 30, 2015 updated by: Byung-Cheul Shin, Korean Medicine Hospital of Pusan National University

Electroacupuncture as a Complement to Usual Care for Patients With Non-acute Pain After Back Surgery: a Study Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

The purpose of this study is to find out the effectiveness of integrative medicine model for pain relief and improvement of function and quality of life on the patients with pain after back surgery.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Korea, Republic of
    • Gyeongsangnamdo
      • Yangsan, Gyeongsangnamdo, Korea, Republic of, 626-770
        • Pusan National University Korean Medicine Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

19 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients whose low back pain persisted or recurred after back surgery with or without leg pain.
  • Patients whose pain has been persisted at least 3 weeks recently and who are necessary to care intermittent medical treatments (eg. medication, injection, physio therapy).
  • Patients with pain, defined as an Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) value ≥ 50mm.
  • Patients who are 19 - 70 years of age.
  • Patients who agreed to voluntarily participate in this study and signed informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who have been diagnosed with a serious disease that can cause low back pain (e.g., cancer, vertebral fracture, spinal infection, inflammatory spondylitis, cauda equine compression, or other disqualifying conditions).
  • Patients with progressive neurological deficit or severe neurological symptoms.
  • Patients whose pain causes are not resulted from spine or resulted from soft tissue diseases(e.g., cancer, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, gout).
  • Patients with a chronic disease that could influences the effects of the treatment or the analysis of treatment results (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetic neuropathy, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, dementia, epilepsy, or other disqualifying conditions).
  • Patients for whom acupuncture would be inappropriate or unsafe (e.g., hemorrhagic disease, clotting disorders, a history of receiving anticoagulant therapy, severe diabetes with a risk of infection, severe cardiovascular disease, or other disqualifying conditions)
  • Patients who are currently pregnant or planning the pregnancy.
  • Patients with psychiatric diseases.
  • Patients who are participating in other clinical trial.
  • Patients who are unable to sign informed consent.
  • Patients who are judged to be inappropriate for the clinical study by the researchers, such as inability to read and write Korean.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Electroacupuncture and Usual care
15 minutes of electroacupuncture and usual care. Usual care contains 15 minutes ICT(Interferential Current Therapy), 10 minutes hot pack or ice pack and education of patients.
Device: electroacupuncture and usual care

Electroacupuncture: Using 0.25 mm (diameter) X 0.40 mm (length) sized disposable stainless steel needles, electric stimulation will be applied with an electronic stimulator (ES-160, ITO co. LTD, Japan) 2 times/week × 4 weeks. Stimulation will be applied with the current in biphasic wave form. Acupuncture points are Jia-ji (Ex-B2, L3-L5; bilateral) as necessary points and reasonable points (according to decision of practitioner) as accessory points. Each session lasts 15 minutes.

Usual care: Physical therapy and patient education will be performed 2 times per week for 4 weeks. ICT lasts 15 minutes and Hot or Ice pack lasts 10minutes. Doctors will educate patient physiology, pathology, and epidemiology of low back pain. And also suitable postures and exercises for low back pain will be educated.
Active Comparator: usual care
15 minutes ICT, 10 minutes hot pack or ice pack and education of patients
Device: Usual care
Usual care: Physical therapy and patient education will be performed 2 times per week for 4 weeks. ICT lasts 15 minutes and Hot or Ice pack lasts 10minutes. Doctors will educate patient physiology, pathology, and epidemiology of low back pain. And also suitable postures and exercises for low back pain will be educated.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Visual Analogue Scale
Time Frame: up to 4 months
up to 4 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Oswestry Disability Index
Time Frame: up to 4 months
up to 4 months
EuroQoL 5-Dimension Questionnaire
Time Frame: up to 4 months
up to 4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Korean Medicine Hospital of Pusan National University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Byung-cheul Shin, Pusan National University Korean Medicine Hospital

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 11, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 16, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

October 21, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

April 3, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 30, 2015

Last Verified

March 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2013012
  • K13273 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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