Objective The aim of this study is to analyze the factors influencing the outcomes of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) percutaneous release treatment for the stenosal tendosynovitis. Methods A total of 119 eligible participants, from outpatient of Dongzhimen Hospital during June, 2014 to April, 2017, were included into the study. The participants received TCM percutaneous release treatment, and were followed-up and assessed outcomes at 27 w. Responders were defined as participants with normal movement in week 27 compared with the baseline period. The NRS assessment in both groups was described, and the baseline characteristics of participants potentially related to cure response were mainly analyzed using Logistic regression analysis. Results Cure group and non-cure group were determined according to the cure response. And the outcomes of pain relief along the timeframe showed the feasibility of criteria of cure response. The uni-factor Logistic regression analysis showed that the factors age,course of disease,interventions and pain severity were significantly different between the cure and non-cure groups,and the multi-factor Logistic regression confirmed the four factors influenced the cure response of the TCM percutaneous release treatment for the stenosal tendosynovitis. The cutting knife was 5.85 fold than the traditional needling knife at increasing the cure response (OR=5.853,95% CI 1.853-18.485;P=0.003).All the factors that age equal to or older than 60 years(OR=6.170, 95% CI 1.890-20.141; P=0.003), course of disease more than six months (OR=4.696, 95% CI 1.371-16.085;P=0.014)and pain severity from 6 to 7(OR=5.184,95% CI 1.416-18.975;P=0.013)were negatively associated with clinical response. Conclusions The patients with increasing age, long course of disease and distinct pain severity may be less likely to respond to the TCM percutaneous release treatment. These findings contribute to guiding clinical practice in terms of pretreatment patient selection. Further research is needed to confirm the association.

Objective The purpose of study was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of theblood-letting and herbal-cupping therapy for lumbar spinal stenosis.Methods A multi-center prospective case series was performed.The LSS patients meeting the inclusion criteria received 8 treatments as a course and 4 courses in total.The primary outcomes were the symptom severity and physical function scale ofthe Swiss Spinal Stenosis Measurement (SSM,total score 0-5 for each domain).The secondary outcomes were thethe 12-item short form health survey (SF-12,total score 0-100),and Oswestry disability index (ODI,total score 0-100) at time of baseline,completion of last treatment of each course.The minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) were calculated for estimating the percentage of improvement in the population.The adverse events were reported at any time of the intra-and post-operation.This was a phrase analysis of the studyat seven months.Results Forty-eight patientswere included,with 64.6％ (31/48) of LSS showing neurogenic claudication (walking distance ≤200 m).The average age was 63.1 ± 11.7 years,19 (39.6％) female,and the average BMI was 25.3 ± 3.3 kg/m2.The scores of symptom severity scale of SSM were 2.8 ± 0.6,2.6 ± 0.7,2.3 ± 0.6,1.9 ± 0.2 at baseline,1st,2nd,3rd course,and the scores of physical function scale were 2.5 ± 0.8,2.4 ± 0.7,2.1 ± 0.5,1.8 ± 0.3,and all the changes between baseline and each course showed significant improvement.The patient satisfaction of SSM,ODI and SF-12 showed significantimprovements after the 1st,2nd,3rd course (P＜0.05).The SF-12 subgroup physical composite scores after 3rd course and mental composite score after 1st showed no significant improvement.The minimal clinically important difference for the “SymptomSeverity scale” in the SSM was achieved withimprovement of 18.8％,40.6％,83.3％ in the LSS patient population after 1st,2nd,3rd course;and the "physical function scale" in SSM was achieved withimprovement of 22.9％,31.3％,50.0％.A total of 15 patients felt pain when they were micro-punctured with little blood at first time,but the symptom wereimmediately relieved without any treatment.Conelusions The Blood-letting and herbal-cupping therapy could benefit patients with lumbar spinal stenosis after third course of treatment in the fields of symptom relief and quality of life with no severe adverse event.However,this was a phrase analysis,so more evidence of this study and large comparative researches should be warranted in future.

Acupuncture and Tuina are the main non-drug therapies for low back pain, which are recommended by the guidelines. Acupuncture and Tuina can alleviate pain, which is regarded as conditional specific outcome, and improve mental, emotional problems, as non-conditional specific outcomes. There are some problems of the outcome assessment of acupuncture and Tuina treatment for pain such as insufficient evaluation of specific effect and unclear evaluation of characteristic outcome. Therefore, the key to above problems is to construct a Specific ouTcomE Assessment Modal of acupuncture and Tuina treatment for pain (STEAM-A&T) based on the qualitive and quantitative methods. By describing the experience, narrative expression, feelings and needs of patients who receiving acupuncture and Tuina treatment, the item banks of acupuncture and Tuina treatment effect are constructed, and the characteristic outcome of acupuncture and Tuina for pain will be screened, and then the relationship model among outcomes is constructed and optimized, which reflected the characteristics of acupuncture and Tuina for pain from multiple dimensions, multiple levels and multiple views. We reveal the relationship between the outcome of acupuncture and Tuina for pain. It will provide a new theory and methods for the construction of specific outcome assessment modal of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Objective To preliminarily verify the effectiveness and safety of bloodletting combined with drug bamboo cups in intervention of degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis,and to explore the prognostic factors that affect the efficacy of TCM regimens in the treatment of DLSS.Methods 64 consecutive patients with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis were enrolled.Bloodletting combined with drug bamboo cup intervention was used.Acupoints were selected and treated with the same length of the governor channel of the lumbar spine,the first and second side lines of the bladder meridian and Ashi point,weekly 2 times,8 times per course,2 consecutive courses of treatment.Before treatment,after treatment,and 1 month follow-up,the changes of the patient's lumbar spinal stenosis specific scale(SSM),modified Oswestry dysfunction index(ODI),and 12 health survey summary scores(SF-12)were observed.Using SSM symptom or function score≥0.5,the criteria for grouping were first single-factor analysis,and then logistic regression was used to analyze the prognostic factors of the treatment.Results After 2 courses of treatment,the patient's SSM symptom score(2.25±0.56),SSM function score(2.06±0.67),ODI index(15.49±8.72),and SF-12 physiological score(36.31±7.35)were more significant than before treatment Improved,the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05),the SF-12 psychological score(49.70±9.47),the difference was not statistically significant compared with before treatment(P>0.05);the patient's SSM symptom score(2.22±0.54)was followed up for one month,SSM function score(2.09±0.66),ODI index(15.53±8.23),SF-12 physiological score(36.55±7.25),SF-12 psychological score(50.62±9.17),which are significantly better than before treatment,and the difference is statistically significant(P<0.05),the difference was not statistically significant(P>0.05)after 2 courses of treatment.The univariate logistic regression analysis of each influencing factor showed that:BMI,baseline symptom dimension,baseline functional dimension,foraminal stenosis,lateral recess stenosis,and two-stage stenosis had statistically significant differences between the effective and ineffective groups(P<0.05).Conclusion Bloodletting combined with drug bamboo cups has a certain clinical effect on degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis.