Effect of acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medicine hot compress on post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome
Nie Ting
Huang Lei
Sun Xueqin
Cai Dan
Liu Xin
You Chunmei
Abstract：Objective To observe the clinical effect of acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medicine hot compress at Sishi hour on post-stroke shoulder-hand syndrome(SHS),and its influence on pain score of affected limb,hemorheology and upper limb function.Methods This was a prospective randomized controlled trial.A total of 126 patients with post-stroke SHS admitted to the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine from January 2023 to August 2025 were enrolled.Patients were randomly divided into control group and observation group by random number table method,with 63 cases in each group.One patient in the control group withdrew voluntarily,and 62 cases were finally included.The control group received conventional medication and rehabilitation training,while the observation group was treated with conventional medication and acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medicine hot compress.Both groups were treated for 8 consecutive weeks.The visual analogue scale(VAS)score,Fugl-Meyer upper limb motor function(U-FMA)score,SHS assessment scale(SHSS)score,traditional Chinese medicine syndrome score,clinical efficacy,root mean square of surface electromyography(sEMG)of upper limb muscles,hemorheological indexes and adverse reactions were compared between the two groups.Results After treatment,the VAS score,SHSS score,traditional Chinese medicine syndrome score,plasma viscosity,whole blood low-shear viscosity and platelet aggregation rate in both groups were lower than those before treatment,and those in the observation group were lower than those in the control group(all P＜0.05).The U-FMA score and root mean square of upper limb muscle sEMG in both groups were higher than those before treatment,and those in the observation group were higher than those in the control group(all P＜0.05).The total effective rate of the observation group was higher than that of the control group[90.5％(57/63)vs 77.4％(48/62)](x2=3.964,P=0.046).There was no significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the two groups(P=1.000).Conclusion Acupuncture combined with traditional Chinese medicine hot compress at Sishi hour can improve hemorheology,relieve pain of affected limb and promote the recovery of upper limb function in patients with post-stroke SHS.
Keywords：Shoulder-hand syndromeAcupunctureTraditional Chinese medicine hot compressStrokeHemorheologyUpper limb function
Publication Date：2026-06-18
Online Publishing Date：2026-09-14(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 916-920 )