Stimulated by NG193.[1] Photo by Arno Smit on Unsplash. NICE – National Institute for Health & Care ExcellencecLBP – chronic low back painMSK – musculoskeletalGERAC – German acupuncture trials (large 3 arm trials with ~1000 patients in each)MCID – minimum clinical important differenceLA – local anaestheticCRPS – complex regional pain syndromeRFD – radiofrequency denervation.key to … Continue reading Consider acupuncture for chronic pain
Stimulated by Zheng et al 2021,[1] Giovanardi et al 2020,[2] and Yin et al 2020.[3] Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com Botox – botulinum toxin type ACI – confidence intervalEBM – evidence based medicinefMRI – functional magnetic resonance imagingGRADE – grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluationIF – impact factorMWoA – migraine without auraNMA – … Continue reading Acupuncture, drugs or Botox for chronic migraine?
Stimulated by Xu et al.[1] Photo by Anh Nguyen on Unsplash. I casually picked up my copy of the BMJ on Friday 27th March 2020. The date on the cover was 28th March, in case any of you go searching. The cover image is a road sign mandating “Keep your distance”. Obviously COVID-19 is the big story, so … Continue reading Manual acupuncture for migraine
Stimulated by Chen et al 2019.[1] Photo by Carolina Heza on Unsplash. I nearly overlooked this paper when it popped up on my PubMed search a few days after being published online in the Journal of Neurology on 21st August 2019. I guess it was the comparison with propranolol, and the fact that beta-blockers have … Continue reading Acupuncture vs propranolol in migraine
This blog was first published on 27th July 2017 on https://blogs.bmj.com/aim/ I subsequently attended the Spanish Pain Society conference (#SEDPalma2018) and there was a whole session devoted to this paper and why it did not apply to the way these specialists used the technique :-/. This piece has also been stimulated by a publication in JAMA, … Continue reading Burning nerves with needles in back pain – stop the burning, just use the needles!
This blog was first published on 30th Novenber 2016 on https://blogs.bmj.com/aim/ When the draft clinical guideline for low back pain & sciatica was published in February 2016, it was with some resignation that I noted the 2009 recommendation in CG88 for acupuncture in low back pain (from 6 weeks to 1 year)[1] had been dropped. It … Continue reading Too NICE – there appears to be a glaring orthodox bias in NG59
This blog was first published on 4th April 2016 on https://blogs.bmj.com/aim/ Further commentary: Low back pain and sciatica: management of non-specific low back pain and sciatica Draft clinical guideline February 2016 This commentary follows a previous blog post. Late last Friday night I got around to dropping the pain VAS outcome figures from the trials of acupuncture … Continue reading Musings on heterogeneity in quantitative outcomes of acupuncture trials in LBP
This blog was first published on 31st March 2016 on https://blogs.bmj.com/aim/ Commentary: Low back pain and sciatica: management of non-specific low back pain and sciatica Draft clinical guideline February 2016 NICE clinical guidelines are very large pieces of work. This draft runs to over 1000 pages with the addition of around 2500 pages of appendices, and data … Continue reading Exercise not acupuncture recommended by NICE for low back pain
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