Effect of Auriculopuncture in Patients with Periarthritis Shoulder: A Prospective Control study

BACKGROUND: Frozen shoulder is also referred to as adhesive capsulitis, painful stiff shoulder, and periarthritis.The lifetime prevalence of frozen shoulder is estimated to be 2 to 5 percent of the general population. Patients with diabetes mellitus are at greater risk of developing frozen shoulder, with a prevalence of 10 to 20 percent. Auricular acupuncture (AA) is called the treatment of physical and psychosomatic dysfunctions by stimulating the ear surface exclusively. Previous studies have reported that AA can relieve pain improve Range of motion. This study is designed to assess the effects of AA on PAS patients. METHODS: Sixty subjects aged between 40 to 60 years presents with symptoms of PAS were randomly assigned into (control group n=30) and Auricular acupuncture (Experimental group n=30). Both groups were assessed at the baseline and at the end of 12 sessions in 14 days. Shoulder pain were scored by SPADI (Shoulder pain and disability index) pain and ROM was measured in terms of shoulder abduction, flexion and external rotation. The sterile acupuncture needles were inserted in the ear of the subjects at specific points (such as Jerome point, thalamus point, Shenmen point, shoulder joint point, shoulder point) for 20 minutes of duration. RESULTS: SPADI score and ROM were improved in both the groups. But AA group shows highly significant results clinically as well as statistically in pain index (0.00), disability index (0.002), total SPADI score (0.001), ROM in shoulder flexion (0.002), abduction (0.001) and in external rotation (0.00). CONCLUSION: AA showed greater effect in ROM. Although this study shows that an AA is highly recommended for PAS, future research with a large cohort study with long monitoring is needed to validate these results