BACKGROUND:Pain is the extremely common disease in clinic. At present, acupuncture provides good therapeutic effect on it. But, there are many methods in acupuncture with various advantages individually.To understand the differences in therapeutic effects on pain with various needling techniques is significant in clinic. In 1999, the relevant observation was carried on in the demand of Ecuadorian Medical Pain Association.OBJECTIVE: To observe the differences in therapeutic effects on pain with various needling techniques.DESIGN: Randomized controlled observation was designed.SETTING: Department of Pain, Hospital General de las FF. AA. Quito, Ecuador, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine and 1st Department of Surgery, General Hospital of Chengdu MilitaryArea Command of Chinese PLA.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 360 cases of lumber strain and hyperplastic spondylitis were selected in Department of Pain, Clinic of Ecuadorian 3rd Military General Hospital from May 1999 to November 2000, in which,179 cases were lumber strain and 181 cases were hyperplastic spondylitis.The groups were randomized in two kinds of diseases, named for lumber strain, dermal-needling group (88 cases) and body-acupuncture group (91cases); for hyperplastic spondylitis, dermal-needling group (92 cases) and body-acupuncture group (89 cases).METHODS: Dermal needling and body acupuncture were used to treat the diseases respectively and the symptom changes were observed before and after treatment simultaneously. The treatment was given once every two days. 5 treatments made one basic course for lumber strain and 7 treatments for hyperplastic spondylitis. The treating results were evaluated according to Budzynski grading criteria on pain. MEPS statistical software was used for statistical management of data.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pain relieving before and after treatment with dermal needling and body acupuncture for lumber strain and hyperplastic spondylitis was evaluated. Correlative analysis on therapeutic effects and course of treatment for different diseases with same therapy and on same disease with different therapies were carried on.RFSULTS: Altogether 366 cases were observed and 6 of them were excluded. Totally, 360 cases finished the experiment. ① The severity was alleviated in pain grading after treatment with dermal needling and body acupuncture compared with that before the treatment (P ＜ 0.01). ② In treatment of lumber strain and hyperplastic spondylitis with dermal needling, the therapeutic effects on lumber strain were more remarkable (P ＜ 0.01). The therapeutic effects of dermal needling on lumber strain were superior to that of body acupuncture (P ＞ 0.05). ③ The therapeutic effects of body acupuncture group on pain of Ⅰ grade in hyperplastic spondylitis were remarkably better than that of dermal needling group,but the significant difference in the total therapeutic effects of two techniques did not present (P ＞ 0.05). ④ When pain grading was reduced by 1 level in two groups, the average times of treatment in dermal needling group were less than that in body-acupuncture group (P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: Good therapeutic effects of dermal needling and body acupuncture are achieved for both hyperplastic spondylitis and lumber strain,in which, the therapeutic effects of dermal needling are remarkable on injury of soft tissue and achieved swiftly; body acupuncture improves pain in hyperplastic spondylitis more radically compared with dermal needling.