CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Neurol.
Sec. Experimental Therapeutics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2025.1627376
A Clinical Study of Ultrasound-Guided Acupotomy Combined with Mindfulness Meditation to Improve Lumbar Myofascial Pain Syndrome
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Rehabilitation, Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Area Hospital, Fuzhou, China
- 2Department of Painology, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Affiliated People's Hospital, Fuzhou, China
- 3Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou, China
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Abstract OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided acupotomy combined with mindfulness meditation for the treatment of lumbar myofascial pain syndrome (MPS). METHODS: This blinded randomized controlled trial lasted for 3 weeks and included a 90-day follow-up. The participants were 120 patients with lumbar MPS. These patients were randomized into three groups: group A (ultrasound-guided acupotomy combined with mindfulness meditation, n=40), group B (ultrasound-guided acupotomy, n=40) and group C (celecoxib, n=40). Data were collected at baseline, week 1, week 2, week 3 (posttreatment) and day 90 (follow-up). RESULTS: Group A was superior to group B and significantly superior to group C in terms of pain level (measured via the McGill Pain Questionnaire), lumbar spine mobility and mood disorders (measured via the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and quality of sleep (measured via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) (P<0.05). Furthermore, the treatment efficacy was more durable in group A (there was no significant rebound at 90 days of follow-up). The TNF-α and IL-1β serum levels were reduced in all three groups at week 3 but were more pronounced in the celecoxib group. Compared with ultrasound-guided acupotomy and celecoxib, ultrasound-guided acupotomy combined with mindfulness meditation can rapidly relieve pain, improve lumbar spine function, and permanently improve patients' psychological state and sleep quality through the dual mechanism of "peripheral relaxation-central regulation". This approach can treat the lumbar MPS from the root and provides new ideas for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of chronic pain.
Keywords: lumbar myofascial pain syndrome, Ultrasound-guided, acupotomy, mindfulness meditation, MPS
Received: 23 Jun 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yujia, Wenbing, jiayi, Yuxuan and li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhang Wenbing, zwb201919@126.com
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