The Long-Term Course of Outcomes for Lumbar Intervertebral Disc Herniation following Integrated Complementary and Alternative Medicine Inpatient Treatment: A Prospective Observational Study
Table 2
Length of hospital stay and interventions administered during stay.
Variables
Long-term follow-up group ()
Non-long-term follow-up group ()
%
Mean
SD
%
Mean
SD
Length of hospital stays (days)
2
2
Complementary and alternative medicine
Herbal medicinea
366
99.73
44.24
24.01
157
100.00
40.62
20.55
Protocol decoction
353
96.19
22.56
12.92
153
97.45
21.52
12.65
Protocol pills
366
99.73
48.01
29.05
157
100.00
43.23
23.79
Acupuncture
367
100.00
37.77
21.47
157
100.00
35.03
21.05
Pharmacopuncture
323
88.01
15.34
13.09
132
84.08
14.33
13.47
Bee venom pharmacopuncture
190
51.77
19.31
14.15
73
46.50
20.12
11.53
Chuna (Korean manipulation)
300
81.74
13.84
8.54
139
88.54
12.72
7.58
Conventional treatment
Analgesics (pain killers)
58
15.80
1.4
0.9
31
19.75
1.58
1.15
Nerve blocksb
37
10.08
1.08
0.28
22
14.01
1.05
0.21
aHerbal medicine protocol: a standardized herbal medicine prescription was recommended for all patients prior to commencement of the study; however, the protocol allowed for individual tailoring according to patient characteristics and clinical symptoms as seen necessary by KMDs; bmedications such as anesthetics and steroids were injected in close proximity to the lumbar nerve root affected by the herniated disc.
