Clinical efficacy of smokeless energy-gathered moxibustion combined with Western medicine in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia

ZHANG Yanchun; MENG Yingchun; WANG Haiquan

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-266X.2025.08.013

Abstract：Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of smokeless energy-gathered moxibustion combined with Western medicine in the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia(PHN).Methods Sixty-six patients with PHN were select-ed and randomly assigned into the observation group and the control group,with 33 cases in each group.Patients in the control group were treated with conventional acupuncture combined with Western medicine,while patients in the observa-tion group were treated with smokeless energy-gathered moxibustion combined with Western medicine,and the treatment lasted for a total of 4 weeks.Visual analog scale(VAS)was used to assess the patients'pain level before treatment and the fourth week after treatment,and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index(PSQI)was used to assess the patients'sleep quali-ty.Clinical efficacy was evaluated according to the Criteria of Diagnosis and Therapeutic Effect of Diseases and Syn-dromes in Traditional Chinese Medicine,combined with changes in VAS scores,and the total effective rate was calcu-lated.Results No statistically significant differences were found in the VAS or PSQI scores between the two groups be-fore treatment(both P>0.05);after four weeks of treatment,the VAS and PSQI scores decreased,and both of them were lower in the observation group than in the control group(both P<0.05).The total effective rate of the control group was 21.2%,and the total effective rate of the observation group was 90.9%;the total effective rate of the observation group was higher than that of the control group(P<0.05).Conclusion Smokeless energy-gathered moxibustion combined with Western medicine demonstrates favorable clinical efficacy for PHN,showing significant advantages in pain relief and im-provement of sleep quality.