| Author: | Lee, Ho-wai |
| Title: | Changes of pain threshold by auricular laser therapy with different energy densities |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2007 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations. Pain -- Treatment. Lasers in medicine. Acupuncture. |
| Department: | Department of Rehabilitation Sciences |
| Pages: | xvi, 100 leaves : ill. ; 31 cm. |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Background: Auricular acupuncture is commonly used to treat pain conditions but it is an invasive technique so it carries potential risks. Besides, it also creates a certain degree of discomfort to the patients. On the other hand, use of low power laser (termed as laser in this paper) has the advantages of being painlessness and requiring shorter period of treatment time when compared to conventional auricular acupuncture or electrical auricular acupuncture. However, studies investigating the effect of laser on the auricular acupuncture points are limited. Knowing the usage and effectiveness of laser on auricular acupoints can provide useful information for the development of this technique in pain management in the future. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of auricular laser acupuncture and the change of mechanical pain threshold. Stimulation were applied over Shen-men and wrist reflexive point, by using wavelength, 810nm, with energy density of 30J/cm2 or 60J/cm2. Specifically, the objectives are: 1. To examine the immediate and latent effect of auricular laser acupuncture on mechanical induced pain threshold 2. To compare the effect on mechanically induced pain threshold between high and low energy auricular laser therapy 3. To compare the effect on mechanical pain threshold between left and right sided body by the auricular laser therapy Study Design: A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial with repeated measures study design was used in this study. Subjects: 72 healthy Chinese male and female adults were recruited by convenience sampling in the community. There were 34 males with age of 35.24+-8.24 years and 38 females with age of 31.45+-6.01 years. The mean age of all subjects was 33.24+-7.35 years. They were assigned to participate in two experimental and one control conditions in random orders. Pain threshold measurements were taken in each session. Results: Results showed that there were significant differences (p<0.01) between high energy and control, and low energy and control (p<0.01) in both immediate post intervention period and 30 minutes post intervention period in left and right wrists. Although there was no significant difference in the change of pain threshold between high and low energy conditions in the period of immediate post intervention but there was significant increase (p<0.01) in left wrist in the period of 30 minutes after intervention. Moreover, the pain threshold significantly increased from immediate post intervention to 30 minutes post intervention on both wrists in high and low energy densities (p< 0.01). However, the pain threshold differences between left and right wrists at both energy densities did not reach statistical significant level. Conclusion: The present study illustrated that auricular laser acupuncture stimulation could change the induced mechanical pain threshold on healthy normal subjects. Both low and high energy densities were able to increase the induced mechanical pain threshold on bilateral wrists. Latent effect was found in both energy levels. Higher pain threshold and better latent effect were observed in high energy condition. However, there was no significant difference of pain threshold between left and right wrists in this study. The study suggests that auricular laser acupuncture has analgesic effect and implies that it may be a potential strategy for pain relief treatment in the future. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b20902566.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 9.27 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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