OBJECTIVETo compare the short and long-term therapeutic effects on cervical spondylotic radiculopathy (CSR) treated with simple Long's bone-setting manipulation, abdominal acupuncture and abdominal acupuncture plus Long's bone-setting manipulation.

METHODSOne hundred and eighty cases of CSR were randomly allocated into abdominal acupuncture plus bone-setting group (combined therapy group), bone-setting group and abdominal acupuncture group, 60 cases in each group. In combined therapy group, the abdominal acupuncture and Long's bone-setting were applied in combination. Abdominal acupuncture was applied to Zhongwan (CV 12), Guanyuan (CV 4), Shiguan (KI 18), Shangqu (KI 17), etc. Long's manipulation, such as bone-setting in head-upward posture and bone-setting in head-lateral posture, was adopted. In bone-setting group and abdominal acupuncture group, Long's bone-setting manipulation and abdominal acupuncture were adopted simply and respectively. The clinical therapeutic effects were compared after 2 courses of treatment (short-term) and 1-month after treatment (long-term) among groups.

RESULTSThe short and long-term curative and markedly effective rates in combined therapy group were 80.7% (46/57) and 68.4% (39/57) respectively, which were better than those of 63.64% (35/55), 30.9% (17/55) in bone-setting group and 58.9% (33/56), 50.0% (28/56) in abdominal acupuncture group, separately (all P < 0.05). Moreover, the long-term curative and markedly effective rate in abdominal acupuncture group was superior to that in bone-setting group (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONAbdominal acupuncture plus Long's bone-setting manipulation has significant efficacy of either short or long-term on CSR, which is superior to the efficacy of either simple abdominal acupuncture or Long's bone-setting manipulation and indicates superimposed effect. Hence, it is one of the better approaches in CSR treatment.