Clinical efficacy of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in treatment of lumbar disc herniation

REN Hongxian; XIN Zhijun; JI Wensai; WANG Ning; MENG Xianze

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Medical Journal of the Chinese People Armed Police Forces ›› 2024, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (9) : 740-744.

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Clinical efficacy of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in treatment of lumbar disc herniation

REN Hongxian¹, XIN Zhijun¹, JI Wensai², WANG Ning¹, MENG Xianze¹

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Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical effect of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (TaVNS) in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation (LDH). Methods A total of 68 LDH patients who were treated in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine of No.971 Hospital of PLA Navy from January 2022 to December 2022 were selected as the study objects, and were divided into conventional treatment group and TaVNS group according to random number table method, with 34 cases in each group. The conventional treatment group received traditional Chinese medicine treatment, while the TaVNS group received TaVNS on the basis of the conventional treatment group for 2 courses. The VAS pain scores and Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores of the two groups were recorded before treatment (T₀), on the 7th day (T₁), and on the end of treatment (T₂), and were compared and analyzed to judge the improvement of symptom. Results After treatment, VAS scores and JOA symptom scores were significantly improved compared with before treatment, and the difference was statistically significant (F=366.978,P<0.001;F=400.187,P<0.001).At T₂, the VAS score of the TaVNS group was significantly lower than that of the conventional treatment group at T₂(2.24±0.99 vs 2.79±0.88,P=0.016). The JOA symptom score of the TaVNS group at T₂ was significantly higher than that of the conventional treatment group(21.38±4.59 vs 18.56±3.36,P=0.005). The improvement index and clinical efficacy of TaVNS group were better than those of conventional treatment group, and the differences were statistically significant (Z=3.325,P=0.001). Conclusions TaVNS can obviously improve the clinical symptoms of patients with lumbar disc herniation, which is worthy of popularization and application.

Key words

lumbar disc herniation / transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation / non-surgical treatment / pain

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REN Hongxian, XIN Zhijun, JI Wensai, WANG Ning, MENG Xianze. Clinical efficacy of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation in treatment of lumbar disc herniation[J]. Medical Journal of the Chinese People Armed Police Forces. 2024, 35(9): 740-744

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