Acupuncture and BCG 2024

Stimulated by Psutka et al 2024.[1] BCG – Bacillus Calmette-GuérinTB – tuberculosisIF – impact factorNMIBC – non-muscle-invasive bladder cancerEA – electroacupunctureUTI – urinary tract infectionPROMs – patient-reported outcome measures – key to acronyms The title of this paper captured my attention because a colleague had undergone BCG instillation into the bladder to treat bladder cancer … Continue reading Acupuncture and BCG 2024

EA for CUR 2024

Stimulated by Yang et al 2024.[1] Lake Powell, Arizona on Wednesday 19th April 2023. EA – electroacupunctureCUR – chronic urinary retentionQoL – quality of lifeSNS – sacral nerve stimulationPOUR – post-operative urinary retentionPVR – post-voiding residual (urine volume)EA – electroacupuncturePOCUS – point of care ultrasound key to acronyms This is a relatively small retrospective cohort … Continue reading EA for CUR 2024

Acupuncture for endometriosis pain 2023

Stimulated by Li et al 2023.[1] Figure 2 from Li et al 2023.[1] RCT – randomised controlled trialVAS – visual analogue score key to acronyms This is the second moderately large (n=106) controlled trial of acupuncture in endometriosis. It is a sham controlled trial. The first was a similarly sized (n=101) cross-over trial using acupuncture … Continue reading Acupuncture for endometriosis pain 2023

Acupuncture for ARC 2022

Inspired by Tu et al 2022.[1] Photo by Anton Nikolov on Unsplash. ARC – acute renal colicBUCM – Beijing University of Chinese MedicineIF – impact factorMA – manual acupunctureIM – intramuscular (injection – a route for administering drugs)NSAID – non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugaka – also known asde qi – typical needling sensation perceived by the patient … Continue reading Acupuncture for ARC 2022

Acupuncture for CP CPPS

Inspired by Sun et al 2021.[1] Points used in the trial adapted from Supplement 3 of the publication.[1] CP – chronic prostatitisCPPS – chronic pelvic pain syndromeRCT – randomised controlled trialIF – impact factorNIH-CPSI – National Institute of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom IndexMA – manual acupunctureMCID – minimal clinically important differenceSUI – stress urinary incontinencekey … Continue reading Acupuncture for CP CPPS

The Power of Placebo and MUI

Stimulated by Power et al 2020,[1] and Kang et al 2020.[2] Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Placebo figured heavily in last week’s blog, so I could not overlook this paper when it appeared on PubMed at the end of the same week. The first author has a remarkably suitable name on a paper that tests … Continue reading The Power of Placebo and MUI

Sacral needling 2020

Stimulated by Yuan et al 2019 and Sun et al 2020.[1,2] Photo by Pavel Nekoranec on Unsplash. This is a statue of Prometheus and the Oceanids.I have added coloured dots over BL32, BL33 and BL35. Rather similar to last week’s blog, I was drawn to the first of these papers by the comparison of techniques alluded to in … Continue reading Sacral needling 2020

EA vs conventional Rx in MUI

Inspired by Liu et al. Mayo Clin Proc 2019.[1] Another huge trial from the team at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing. This follows on from two previous large multicentre trials,[2,3] both of which I have reported on in this blog: https://bmas.blog/2018/10/05/ea-for-chronic-severe-functional-constipation/ and https://bmas.blog/2018/10/11/ea-for-stress-urinary-incontinence/ Having established specific effects of electroacupuncture (EA) in … Continue reading EA vs conventional Rx in MUI

EA for stress urinary incontinence

– perhaps via direct pudendal nerve stimulation This blog was first published on 4th December 2017 on BMJ Blogs and subsequently deleted, so I reposted it here. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Earlier in 2017 this paper popped up in JAMA.[1] It was from the same group that had published a huge multicentre trial of electroacupuncture … Continue reading EA for stress urinary incontinence