DOES ACUPUNCTURE AND RELATED THERAPIES REDUCE PAIN AND IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE IN DOGS WITH NEUROLOGICAL AND MUSCULOSKELETAL DISEASES?

摘要

The effectiveness of acupuncture in treating acute and chronic pain has been supported by evidenced based medicine and veterinary medicine. Few clinical evidence studies reported the use of acupuncture to treat chronic pain in veterinary medicine. When osteoarthritis is concerned, although electro acupuncture failed to decrease severity of lameness in dogs with chronic elbow joint osteoarthritis secondary to elbow joint dysplasia (Kapatking et al 2006), the study evaluated a small number of animals (n=9), for only three weeks, was nor bind, used low frequency electro stimulation, where high frequency would be indicated, and there was no information about the experience of the acupuncturist. Other study showing that gold implants was not better thana control group to reduce locomotion score and pain signs in dogs with hip dysplasia (Hielm-Bjorkman et al. 2001) also had some limitations some animals were old and had already been suffered surgery.