Acupuncture point injection with placental extract improves pain and quality of life in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome

Abstract

Context: Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) can seriously affect the quality of patient lives due to chronic widespread pain. One of treatment strategies for the management of FMS is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments including acupuncture. A new acupuncture therapy, acupuncture point injection (API) that combines acupuncture and medication is recently used in China and Korea to accomplish more effective therapeutic outcomes. Yet, there is no attempt to investigate the effect of API with placental extract on the treatment of FMS. Objective: This study evaluated the effectiveness of API with placental extract on pain reduction and life quality in patients with FMS. Methods: This is a retrospective study analyzing medical records. Setting: Clinical setting. Participants: Participants were 64 patients at the clinic being treated for FMS, at an average age of 46 having symptom duration from 6 months to 2 years. Intervention: Placental extract was weekly injected into acupuncture points GB21, SI11, SI13, SI14, Ex-HN15, and BL13 for five weeks to the participants. Outcome measures: The primary outcome, pain, was measured on a VAS scale. Secondary outcomes, sleep disorder and daily workable hours without break, were evaluated using questionnaire. Results: After APIs with placental extract for five weeks, pain and sleep discomfort were substantially decreased. Patients also displayed elongated productive times which denote workable hours to maintain daily activity without pain-evoked break after the API treatment. Conclusion: We suggest that API with placental extracts is a safe and promising treatment for FMS. A larger follow-up trial is needed to determine more definitely the efficacy of API with placental extract.