LASER ACUPUNCTURE VERSUS ULTRASOUND IN TREATMENT OF DISCOGENIC SCIATICA

Abstract

Background:sciatica is a common medical problem causing pain and functional disability resulting from bulge or herniation of one or more intervertebral discs; it is a frequent and often debilitating eventpurpose: This study was conducted to investigate and compare the effect of laser acupuncture and ultrasonic on pain level and functional outcomein treatment of patients with discogenic sciatica. Subjects and methods: we used 30 patients with discogenic sciatica (age 41.1±4.6years, height 165.05±4.44kgm, weight 81.33±2.8m and BMI 29.9±1.76kgm\m2).This study conducted in outpatient clinic of Al- Qasr Al Aini hospital, Cairo University, patients were assigned into 2 equal groups Group (A):composed of 15 patients who have received laser acupuncture in addition to physical therapy program which include infrared radiation, stretching and strengthening exercises for back and abdominal muscles for 12 sessions over four weeks period and Group (B): composed of 15 patients who have received continuous ultrasonic in addition to physical therapy program(as group A) which include infrared radiation, stretching and strengthening exercises for back and abdominal muscles for 12 sessions over four weeks period.We use visual analogue scale to assess pain level, modified oswestry disability questionnaire to assess functional disability, straight leg raising test to assess range of motion and speed test to assess walking performance.Results: the study showed the presence of statistically significant results of measurements both groups before and after the submission of therapy sessions designed for them, such as : the reduction of severity of the pain (group A: pre (7.73±0.42), post (3.52±0.51) and improvement (4.21±0.61), and group B: pre (8.05±0.54), post (5.51±0.54)and improvement (2.55±0.72)) , reduction of the degree of functional disability(group A: pre (33±1.77), post (14.8±3.49)and improvement (18.2±4.30), and group B: pre (32.93±2.34), post (20.33±3.13)and improvement (12.6±3.68)), improvement of range of motion(group A: pre (40.41±4.73), post (64.68±6.21)and improvement (24.27±6.62), and group B: pre (41.57±5.46), post (55.35±2.9)(and improvement (13.78±6.15)) and improvement of walking performance(group A: pre (1.26±0.08), post (1.47±0.03)and improvement (0.21±0.08), and group B: pre (1.24±0.05), post (1.4±0.03)and improvement (0.16±0.05)), as the study showed the presence of statistically significant results of measurements of the group (A) compared to group (B) describes the post treatment values in the patients of group (A) compared to group (B) in terms of the severity of pain, the degree of functional disability, range of motion and walking performance. Conclusion:we found that both laser acupuncture group and ultrasound group showed significant improvement between pre and post values of VAS, MODQ, SLR and ST, but laser acupuncture group showed more significant improvement than ultrasound group regarding VAS, MODQ, SLR and ST.So we can conclude that laser acupuncture and ultrasound may be used in treatment of discogenic sciatica but laser acupuncture is more beneficial.