Researchers find acupuncture highly effective and that scalp acupuncture is particularly important for post-stroke patients. Scalp acupuncture significantly boosts the effectiveness of body style acupuncture for the treatment of post-stroke facial paralysis. In a randomized controlled trial, researchers determined that the addition of scalp acupuncture to a standard acupuncture therapeutic regimen increases positive patient outcomes by over 20%. In the investigation, body style acupuncture achieved a 71.4% total effective rate. The addition of scalp acupuncture to the treatment protocol increased the total effective rate to 93.1%. [1] Based on the data, the researchers conclude that scalp acupuncture optimizes patient outcomes for patients with post-stroke facial paralysis.
Fujian Ningde Hospital researchers (Ding et al.) conducted a double-arm trial with 60 patients diagnosed with post-stroke paralysis between August 2014 and August 2016. All patients were diagnosed in accordance with standards set by the Fourth Academic Conference for Cerebrovascular Disease. [2] Causative lesions were detected by CT or MRI and extraneous pathological causes were ruled out.
Patients were randomly divided into two groups of thirty. Both patient groups received identical body style acupuncture and were also given routine neurological drugs and received facial physiotherapy. In addition, one treatment group received scalp acupuncture. Treatment was administered once per day, five times per week, for four consecutive weeks. The following body style acupoints were administered for all paricipants (afflicted side):
Qianzheng (N-HN-20: 0.5–1 cun anterior to the auricular lobe)
Yangbai (GB14)
Zanzhu (BL2)
Yingxiang (LI20)
Dicang (ST4)
Jiache (ST6)
Quchi (LI11)
Hegu (LI4)
Waiguan (TB5)
Zusanli (ST36)
Xuehai (SP10)
Fenglong (ST40)
A perpendicular, transverse, or oblique insertion technique was used for t