[Purpose] This study investigated sports injuries in university students and compared two different acupuncture therapy procedures for chronic low back pain (LBP).
[Method] The questionnaire (12 items) was distributed to members of sports clubs at Meiji University of Oriental Medicine. Patients with LBP resulting from sports injuries who had had low back pain for more than a year were treated by two different acupuncture therapy procedures. There were no abnormal findings in their neurological examinations.
[Result] The questionnaire response rate was 68.6%. The overall prevalence rate of sports injuries was 77.6%, and LBP patients were the most common. On the other hand, during and after the preceding therapy, using the traditional acupoints for LBP, there was no remarkable clinical effect on LBP, whereas during and after the succeeding therapy using the trigger point, there were remarkable clinical effects on LBP, as evaluated by the visual analogue scale.
[Conclusion] These results suggest that trigger point acupuncture therapy may be more effective on chronic LBP in sports than therapy which uses traditional acupuncture.