Laser Acupuncture for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Single-Blinded Controlled Study

Laser Acupuncture Versus Electroacupuncture for Nonsevere Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background

Electroacupuncture (EA) is commonly employed for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), whereas laser acupuncture (LA) seems to offer a safer and more convenient alternative. Nevertheless, transitioning from EA to LA requires evidence. This study aims to compare their clinical efficacy and safety.

Methods

A randomized single-blind controlled trial was conducted on 76 CTS patients, with 38 patients assigned to receive EA (EA group) and 38 assigned to receive LA (LA group). Acupoints selected for both groups included PC4, PC6, PC7, PC8, LI4, LI10, LI11, HT3, HT7, and LU10. The intervention consisted of 20 sessions over 4 weeks. Symptom Severity Scale (SSS) and Functional Status Scale (FSS) scores, patients' satisfaction, and adverse events (AEs) were recorded.

Results

The LA group demonstrated significantly greater reductions in SSS and FSS scores than the EA group, with mean differences (MDs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of -4.29 (-5.40 to -3.18) and -0.73 (-1.24 to -0.24), respectively, after 4 weeks of treatment. Complete symptom, functional recovery, and both were also significantly better in the LA group (relative risks [RR] [95% CI]: 14.00 [1.94 to 101.22], 1.58 [1.24 to 2.02], and 14.00 [1.94 to 101.22], respectively). Overall treatment effectiveness and satisfaction levels were notably higher in the LA group. Six patients experienced AEs in the EA group, whereas no AEs were reported in the LA group.

Conclusions

In this study, the findings indicate that LA may offer a safer and more effective alternative to EA. Further studies with longer follow-up periods and assessment of electrodiagnostic changes after intervention are needed.

The Dosage Effect of Laser Acupuncture at PC6 (Neiguan) on Heart Rate Variability: A Pilot Study

Laser acupuncture (LA) has been more applicated in the clinical practice with good responses, but the dosage and parameter settings are still inconsistent with the arguments. This study is focused on the effect of LA on heart rate variability (HRV) with different energy density (ED). Based on the Arndt-Schulz law, we hypothesized that the effective range should fall within 0.01 to 10 J/cm² of ED, and settings above 10 J/cm² would perform opposite or inhibitory results. We recruited healthy adults in both sexes as subjects and choose bilateral PC6 (Neiguan) as the intervention points to observe the HRV indexes changes by an external wrist autonomic nerve system (ANS) watch on the left forearm. The data from the ANS watch, including heart rate, blood pressure, and ANS activity indexes, such as low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), LF%, HF%, LF/HF ratio, and so on, were analyzed by the one-way ANOVA method to test the possible effect. In this study, every subject received all three different EDs of LA in a randomized order. After analyzing the data of 20 subjects, the index of HF% was upward and LF/HF ratio was downward when the ED was 7.96 J/cm². Otherwise, the strongest ED 23.87 J/cm² performed the opposite reaction. Appropriately, LA intervention could affect the ANS activities, with the tendency to increase the ratio of parasympathetic and decrease the ratio of sympathetic nerve system activities with statistically significant results, and different ED interventions are consistent with Arndt-Schulz law with opposite performance below and above 10 J/cm².