Influence of acupuncture on remodeling of swallowing functions for patients with pseudobulbar palsy after cerebral infarction

Objective: To explore the interfering effect of acupuncture treatment in remodeling the swallowing functions for the patients with pseudobulbar palsy after cerebral infarction. Methods: Seventy-two cases with pseudobulbar palsy after cerebral infarction were randomly allocated into an observation group and a control group, 36 cases in each group. The treatment group was treated with acupuncture based upon routine neurological therapies, once a day, with one day rest after continuous treatment for six days, and therapeutic effects were assessed after six courses of the treatments. The control group was treated with routine neurological therapies, with the therapeutic effects observed after the treatment for 42 d. Results: The total effective rate was 80.6% in the observation group and 58.3% in the control group, with statistical significance in comparison of difference between the two groups (P<0.05), and with statistical significance in comparison of the score of deglutition disorder between the observation group and control group (P<0.01). Conclusion: Nape acupuncture can obviously improve the clinical symptoms and signs for the patients with pseudobulbar palsy, with affirmative therapeutic effects, and is worthy of popularization. © 2012 Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.