Clinical efficacy of acupoint injection for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy of patients with breast cancer

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of acupoint injection for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Methods Ninety CIPN patients with breast cancer conforming to inclusive criteria were randomly divided into an acupuncture group (group A), a mecobalamin group (group B) and an acupoint injection group (group C) according to random number table, with 30 cases in each group. In group A, acupuncture was conducted at bilateral Quchi (LI ll), Hegu (LI 4), Zusanli (ST36), Sanyinjiao (SP 6) and Xuehai (SP 10); in group B, intramuscular injection with 1 mL of mecobalamin injection was conducted; and in group C, acupoint selection was the same as group A, and 0.1 mL of mecobalamin injection was injected into each acupoint, respectively. The treatment was conducted once every three days in each group, and the changes of clinical efficacy, nerve electrophysiology and hemorrheology indicators after treatment for 10 times were observed. Result The total effective rate of group C was 93.1% (27/29), which was higher than 78.6% (22/28) in group A and 83.3% (25/30) in group B, and the differences among three groups were statistically significant (all P<0.01); conduction velocity of lesion nerves was improved in group Band group C, the improvement in group C was obviously superior to the other two groups (all P<0.01), hemorrheology indicator was improved in group A and group C (both P<0.05). Conclusion The efficacy of acupoint injection with mecobalamin for breast cancer CIPN was significant, which can not only improve the nerve conduction velocity, but also improve the hemorrheology indicator.