OBJECTIVETo evaluate the short-term and long-term effects on treatment of neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis with the combination of acupuncture and moxibustion with seed-size moxa cone.

METHODSOne hundred and forty-five patients of neck pain were randomly divided into an acupuncture-moxibustion group (49 cases), an acupuncture group (48 cases) and a moxibustion group (48 cases). Acupoints of Bailao (Extra), Dazhui (GV 14), Jianzhongshu (SI15) and Zhongzhu (TE 3) were adopted for all the 3 groups. Acupuncture was applied at all the acupoints with 20 min needling retention for the acupuncture group. Moxibustion with seed-size moxa cone was used with 5 cones on each point for the moxibustion group. And both acupuncture and moxibustion with seed-size moxa cone were adopted for the acupuncture-moxibustion group. The treatment was applied once every 3 days, and 10 treatments should be finished within 4 weeks. Follow-up should be carried out for 3 months. The short-term and long-term effects were evaluated with the scores of Northwick Park Pain Questionnaire (NPQ) and McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) as the indices of therapeutic effect.

RESULTSThe NPQ score and MPQ score of all the 3 groups after the treating course and the 3-month follow-up were both decreased when compared with those before the treatment (all P<0. 05). The scores of NPQ and MPQ the acupuncture-moxibustion group were lower than that of the other two groups. And the difference had obvious significance (P<0. 05). High efficiency of pain relieving for cervical spondylosis could be found in all the 3 groups, which showed that short-term and long-term effects were good for all the 3 groups. And the highest curative effect could be found in acupuncture-moxibustion group.

CONCLUSIONCombination of acupuncture and moxibustion with seed-size moxa cone has reached a superior effect in short-term and long-term for neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis.