• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.9-18
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• 2010

Objectives : This study will broaden understanding of acupotomy therapy through comparison of side effects and complication which can be caused by the mechanism of treatment, surgical methods, and procedure by acupotomy therapy and epidural neuroplasty. Moreover, through an in-depth analysis of headache affected by two procedures, this research is supposed to find prospective cures for headache after acupotomy therapy. Methods : To compare acupotomy therapy with epidural neuroplasty this research was done using a comparative analysis eight theses about acupotomy therapy since 1995, as well as eleven theses about epidural neuroplasty since 2000. Other theses and data were used as references in the process of comparative analysis. Results : Acupotomy therapy and epidural neuroplasty, new treatments of damaged discs in the spine and stenosis made in 1990s, have the mechanism of treatment in common in that adhesion, a node or scar caused by the soft tissue damage is removed by putting catheter or acupuncture into the lesions. Epidural neuroplasty has additional injection into the lesions, which is different from acupotomy therapy in the process of surgical procedure. There are various reports of positive effects about curative effect in these two treatments. The two procedures may cause various complications. Headache may be a complication after surgery. The headache after acupotomy therapy is characterized as being an ache in the body, which is similar to that of post-dural puncture headache in the outbreaks and symptom. Headache after percutaneous epidural neuroplasty appears in general, which is similar to a headache as a result of the increased pressure of the brain spinal cord regardless of posture. Conclusions : Although they are alike in the mechanism of treatment, surgical methods and side effects, and complication after they are carried out as a result of analyzing theses related to acupotomy therapy and percutaneous epidural neuroplasty, there is a difference in aspects and mechanism of headaches experienced after the procedure.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.10-16
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• 2022

This study aimed to analyze the status of adverse events (AEs) in the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions/diseases using thread embedding acupuncture (TEA). Five electronic databases were searched to retrieve data on clinical studies published in the last 5 years (2016 to 2021). Of the 151 studies retrieved, 22 studies analyzed AEs and were selected for this review. There were no AEs reported in 6 studies (27.3%); of the remaining 16 studies, 4 studies (18.2%) reported AEs that were not related to TEA. The most common AEs reported in the Chinese studies were redness of skin with/without swelling and tingling sensation, and in the Korean studies they were stiffness, a foreign body sensation, and bruising. The percentage of patients with AE experience was 5.1% in the Chinese studies and 19.9% in the Korean studies. The discrepancies between the findings in the Chinese and Korean studies may be attribute to differences in the diameter of needles, thread materials, TEA treatment procedure, and evaluation methods for AEs. Most of the reported AEs were of a mild status and did not last for a long time. However, further research on the clinical course after TEA treatment is needed.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.61-66
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• 2012

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to examine the duplicate effect of thread-embedding therapy against obesity. Methods : 5 women from 20 to 30 with obesity were treated with thread-embedding therapy and compared the results with physical measurement, body composition tests and fat thickness measured by ultrasound. Results : The thread-embedding therapy locally reduced body size and fat thickness and had a cumulative effect, but showed the greatest effect in the abdominal region. It didn't affect to the overall change of body composition. Conclusions : The duplicate procedure of thread-embedding therapy for obesity had a cumulative effect, but it depended on the treatment region.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.317-322
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• 2022

Gold thread therapy (GTT) continuously stimulates acupoints and is used to treat chronic conditions/diseases such as chronic lumbar pain. During the procedure gold thread is embedded into the skin and although gold thread is medically pure, GTT is an irreversible treatment where there is limited evidence on its safety. Here, we report a case of a 79-year-old woman being treated for low back pain who developed side effects following moving cupping therapy at a site of GTT (performed in the 1970s). Adverse reactions causing radiating pain persisted more than at least 9 days following moving cupping therapy. The symptoms of pain were evaluated using the numerical rating scale, and changes in tenderness and the state of bruising was recorded. Low back pain improved but the radiating low leg pain did not improve. This case highlights the need for caution when performing moving cupping therapy where GTT has been previously performed.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2021

Objectives: A critical pathway defines the optimal care process, sequencing and timing of intervention by multi-disciplinary health care teams for a particular diagnosis and procedure. It plays an important role as a cost-effective health care delivery system and a tool for quality control of medical and dental services by means of standardizing medical practices. The aim of this study is to investigate the satisfaction of patients and medical staff after implementation of a critical pathway for Korean medical treatment of lumbar disc herniation in integrative medical. Methods and Results: The pre-critical pathway group included 3 patients who underwent the implementation procedure from October 2020. All three patients have successfully been applied critical pathways during inpatient and outpatient treatment. Additionally, medical staff members were satisfied with the usefulness of the critical pathway. Conclusions: The implementation of critical pathway for the Korean medical treatment with lumbar disc herniation in integrative medical hospital can appraise possible applicability in actual clinical field.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2010

Objectives : This study aims to evaluate current clinical evidence of acupuncture treatment for rehabilitation in patients with traffic accident in South Korea. Methods : Seven Korean databases were searched for prospective clinical trials for acupuncture on rehabilitation in patients with traffic accident from their inception to June, 2009. Only studies conducted in Korean language were searched. Risk of bias in included randomized controlled trials were assessed by Cochrane Handbook procedure. Results : Fifteen clinical trials were included among 31 studies searched. Eight were observational studies, five were non-randomizedcontrolled trials, and two were randomized controlled trials. In all of included studies, acupuncture were conducted with other concomitant treatment. Included studies dealt with such conditions as neck pain, low back pain tinnitus after traffic accident, post-traumatic stress, oculomotor nerve palsy, diplopia and insomnia. All of included studies reported favorable effects of acupuncture group compared to baseline or control group. All of included studies lacked the occurrence of adverse events. High risk of bias were observed in two randomized controlled trials. Conclusions : There is no evidence that acupuncture is effective for rehabilitation of traffic accident. All of included studies lacked appropriate methodological qualities and internal validity. Future welldesigned clinical trials that evaluate the effects and safety of acupuncture treatment for rehabilitation in patients with traffic accident is needed.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.135-146
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• 2003

Moxibustion plays an important role not only in the medical service, but also in the health care of Korea. So this study attempted to review of moxibustion and analyze of domestic study trend. And it also intends to examine the usefulness of moxibustion treatment in Korean nursing intervention. "Donguibogam" is famous for the most comprehensive medical book in ancient Korea, indicates that moxibustion makes up a large part of it and that its contents were composed of material, size, time, caring of one's health, indication, operational procedure, contraindication in the documented in the 25 reference books. Also, It confirms that it has been widely used since old times. Especially, it seems to be a great help to researchers because its content lay a theoretical foundation. From the literature, we identified that moxibustion was most widely using method for health promotion and an efficacious cure for a disease. I searched and investigated the journals and dissertations supplied by KERIS and RICH with the key word "moxibustion". Of 10 articles with moxibustion intervention, the trend of domestic studies shows, that of an area relating to nursing was 5. Therefore, moxibustion intervention steadily increases in frequency in nursing academic circles year by year. But there is no distinction between hand moxibustion and moxibustion. According to the above results, we need to develop moxibustion learning program and well designed experimental study with moxibustion for Korean Nursing intervention.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.59-64
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• 2015

Objectives : This study aims to evaluate current clinical evidence of traditional Korean medicine treatment on wrist pain with carpal tunnel syndrome. Methods : Ten Korean databases were searched for prospective clinical trials of traditional Korean medicine therapy on wrist pain with carpal tunnel syndrome from the time of their inception to February, 2015. Studies conducted in Korean, Chinese and English were searched. Risk of bias in included non-randomized controlled trials was assessed by the Cochrane handbook procedure. Results : Four non-randomized controlled trials were included. A high risk of bias was observed in all trials. All of the included studies reported favorable effects being experienced by an intervention group compared to a baseline or control group. Included studies never described any occurrence of adverse events. Conclusions : There is no evidence that traditional Korean medicine treatments are effective for treating wrist pain associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. All of the included studies lacked appropriate methodological qualities and internal validity. Future well-designed clinical trials that evaluate the effects and safety of traditional Korean medicine treatment for patients with carpal tunnel syndrome are needed.

• Korean Journal of Oriental Medicine
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.103-110
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• 2012

Objectives : Fire needling has been applied as the treatment for various diseases and been getting much attention from Oriental medicine due to its excellent effectiveness as the results of clinical studies have reported. However, the research findings on the safety of treatment method, materials for the Fire needling needle materials and the possibility of burn injury during the procedure are still insufficient. Methods : A thermo imaging camera was used to confirm the temperature distribution on acupuncture needle and the treatment area during the fire needling therapy. Then the degree of thermal injury was observed by H&E stain and TUNEL assay. In addition, in order to assess the safety of acupuncture materials, we conducted MTT assay using a L6 cell line. Results : The average temperature of the skin surface was observed at $47{\sim}51^{\circ}C$ after classic fire needling and $30^{\circ}C$ after warming fire needling. Warming fire needling therapy does not induce a burn on the tissue and a third degree burn was observed locally in the muscle and skin layers after classic fire needling treatment. This confirms that hwa-acupuncture therapies do not cause major burns. According to the safety assessment test result, no cytotoxicity was detected in the warming fire needling materials. This confirms the safety of the acupuncture materials Conclusions : Various research results on the biological safety of fire needling. Since fire needling therapy induces a burn locally without leaving any scar, and as other results indicate, it is considered a safe treatment method.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.53-68
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• 2011

Objectives : This study was conducted to investigate status of electroacupuncture(EA) stimulation and adverse effects as a basic information of EA clinical treatment. Methods : The survey was carried twice by e-mail and online service against the traditional Korean medicine doctors registered in the Association of Korea Oriental Medicine. Results : Seventy-eight percent of 284 responders used the EA. The EA was the most widely used for the stimulation of the meridian-muscle on musculo-skeletal pain. In terms of methodological procedure, doctors mainly apply acupuncture with the needle of 2 or 3 pairs of 0.25mm diameter to the depth of 10-50mm for 15 minutes. Respondents used mainly at the frequency of 10Hz and the automatic setting at the intensity of around 3-4 grade. The adverse effects were investigated less then 3% in the 45.9% respondents and non in the 40.5%. The most priority content for better EA treatment was "development of the effective stimulation program". Conclusion : In the result of survey, the frequency of practical use of EA was very high but the applied disease was concentrated in the pain. Hereafter, if the clinical study for safety and effectiveness is secured and more convenient EA tool is developed, the clinical application of the EA is likely to be more expanded.