Clinical Study of Acupuncture Therapy as An Auxiliary Treatment for Guillain-Barre Syndrome

  OBJECTIVE  To observe the clinical efficacy of acupuncture therapy in the auxiliary treatment of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS).

  METHODS  A total of 169 patients with GBS admitted to Sanya TCM Hospital from February 2019 to October 2021 were studied, and were divided into control group (83 cases) and observation group (86 cases) by random number table method. There were 50 cases in the western medicine control group, 50 cases in the western medicine observation group, 33 cases in the Chinese medicine control group, and 36 cases in the Chinese medicine observation group. The control group was treated with conventional western or Chinese medicine therapies, while the observation group was given acupuncture-auxiliary treatment based on the therapies in the control group. The treatment course lasted four weeks. In addition, we compared the muscle strength of the limbs, nerve function motor nerve conduction velocity (MCV), sensory nerve conduction velocity (SCV), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome scores, clinical efficacy, serum inflammatory factors interleukin-10 (IL-10), interleukin-18 (IL-18) levels, as well as safety indexes in the control group and the observation group before and after treatment.

  RESULTS  After treatment, the muscle strength of the of limbs was significantly increased in the western and Chinese medicine observation groups (P < 0.05, P < 0.01), whose results were better than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Besides, the MCV and SCV of the median nerve and tibial nerve were significantly increased in the western and Chinese medicine observation groups (P < 0.05), whose results were also better than those in the control group (P < 0.05). In addition, TCM syndrome scores were significantly reduced in the western and Chinese medicine observation groups compared to pre-treatment results and lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). The total effective rates of treatment in the western and Chinese medicine observation groups were significantly increased than those in the control group (P < 0.05). on top of that, the IL-10 levels in the western and Chinese medicine observation groups were significantly increased (P < 0.01) and higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05), while IL-18 levels were significantly reduced (P < 0.01) and lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05). There were no notable complications in all groups.

  CONCLUSION  Acupuncture auxiliary therapy can significantly optimize the clinical efficacy of western and Chinese medicine treatment. Besides, it can improve patients' muscle strength and neurological function, mitigate clinical syndromes, and restore patients' serum inflammatory factor levels.