Efficacy of spreading moxibustion combined with oral administration and external use of traditional Chinese medicine in treating lumbar disc herniation

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of spreading moxibustion combined with oral administration and external use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (SM-TCM) in treating Lumbar Disc Herniation (LDH). One hundred and eight LDH patients were randomly divided into 3 groups, which received acupuncture (25 cases), SM-TCM (37 cases), and Traction combined with Western medicine (T-WM) group (36 cases), respectively. The overall treatment efficacy was evaluated. The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score and Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA) score were measured. CT examination was performed on the lesion parts of lumbar vertebra. Results showed that, the effective rate in SM-TCM group was significantly higher than other two groups (P<0.05). After treatment, the VAS score in SMTCM group was significantly lower than other two groups (P<0.05), and the JOA score in SM-TCM was significantly higher than other two groups (P<0.05). The height and area of herniated intervertebral disc tissue displayed by CT in SM-TCM group were significantly lower than those in acupuncture and TWM groups (P<0.05). Compared with acupuncture and T-WM, SM-TCM can obtain better treatment efficacy in treatment of LDH.