Skip Navigation



eCAM Advance Access published online on November 23, 2009
eCAM, doi:10.1093/ecam/nep186
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Zhang, S. P.
Right arrow Articles by Li, Q.-S.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Zhang, S. P.
Right arrow Articles by Li, Q.-S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© The Author(s) 2009. Published by Oxford University Press.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Acupuncture Treatment for Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Six Months Follow-up

Shi Ping Zhang1, Tsui-Pik Yip1 and Qiu-Shi Li1,2

1School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong and 2Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, PRC

Plantar fasciitis is a common cause of heel pain. It has been suggested that some acupoints have a specific effect on heel pain. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy and specificity of acupuncture treatment for plantar fasciitis. Subjects were randomly assigned to the treatment group (n = 28) or control group (n = 25). The treatment group received needling at the acupoint PC 7, which is purported to have a specific effect for heel pain. The control group received needling at the acupoint Hegu (LI 4), which has analgesic properties. Treatment was administered five times a week for 2 weeks, with an identical method of manual needling applied to the two acupoints. The primary outcome measure was morning pain on a 100-point visual analog scale (VAS) at one month post-treatment. Secondary outcome measures included a VAS for activity pain, overall pain rating as well as pressure pain threshold using algometry. Significant differences in reduction in pain scores, favoring the treatment group, were seen at one month for morning pain (22.6 ± 4.0 versus 12.0 ± 3.0, mean ± SEM), overall pain (20.3 ± 3.7 versus 9.5 ± 3.6) and pressure pain threshold (145.5 ± 32.9 versus –15.5 ± 39.4). No serious adverse event was observed in either group. The results indicate that acupuncture can provide pain relief to patient with plantar fasciitis, and that PC 7 is a relatively specific acupoint for heel pain.

Keywords: acupoint specificity – acupuncture – Deqi – heel pain – plantar fasciitis

For reprints and all correspondence: Shi Ping Zhang, School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, PRC. Tel: +852-3411-2466; Fax: +852-3411-2461; E-mail: spzhang{at}hkbu.edu.hk

Received April 9, 2009; accepted October 15, 2009


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.