The Clinical Study on Bee Venom Acupuncture Treatment of Patient with Thoracolumbar Compression Fracture

봉약침(蜂藥鍼) 치료(治療)를 병행(竝行)한 흉(胸)·요추압박골절(腰椎壓迫骨折) 환자(患者)의 임상적(臨床的) 고찰(考察)

Objective : The study was performed to evaluate the effect of treatment for thoracolumbar compression fracture by using Bee Venom Acupuncture that is well known for anti-inflammatory and analgesic effect. Methods : We investigated 39 cases of patient with thoracolumbar compression fracture. The patients with thoracolumbar compression fracture were treated at the department of acupuncture & moxibustion of Kyung-Won University Oriental Hospital from 1st January 2001 to 30th August 2002. We selected for two groups. One group was treated by Bee Venom Acupuncture therapy(Bee Venom Acupuncture Group : BAG), the other group was treated by Filiform Acupuncture therapy(None Bee Venom Acupuncture Group : NBAG). Results : 1. The distribution showed female predominance in sex and 70's predominance in age. The largest group was "accidental fall" and the next was "lifting heavy objects" in causes, and within 2 weeks in the duration of disease 2. In the duration of admission, the largest group was within 4 weeks. In regard to level of injury, T12 was found to be most predominant, followed in turn by L1, L2, L5. In regard to grade of clinical symptoms, Grade III was most predominant, followed by Grade II, Grade IV. 3. In the results of treatment, 87.5% were above "Good" in BAG and 47.8% in NBAG. 4. In the result of treatment due to the grade of clinical symptoms, BAG was more excellent than NBAG on the whols grade. 5. In the result of treatment due to duration of admission, the duration of admission was not in proportion to the results of treatment. 6. In the change of lumber flexion, the improvement above $80^{\circ}$ was 50% in BAG and 21.7% in NBAG 7. In the stability of treatment, the BAG and NBAG did't show any detrimental change in GOT, GPT, r-GTP, BUN, creatinine. Conclusions : In the treatment of thoracolumbar compression fracture, the Bee Venom Acupuncture can be regarded as more effective treatment than Filiform Acupuncture in the clinical practice. This is expected to be available for clinical use.