Research Article

Effectiveness and Safety of Acupotomy for Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Randomized, Assessor-Blinded, Controlled Pilot Study

Table 2

Observed outcomes and p-value of adjusted group differences in the analysis of covariance.

VariableWeekAcupotomy group
(n=25)
Manual acupuncture group
(n=25)
Adjusted mean differencep-value

VASBaseline62.74 (16.666)58.83 (16.846)18.56.002
437.52 (24.714)52.48 (23.216)

MMSTBaseline4.69 (1.786)4.84 (1.348)0.55.129
45.48 (1.581)5.01 (1.304)

ODIBaseline36.81 (11.678)30.84 (13.641)8.56<.001
427.24 (12.302)30.76 (14.078)

EQ-5DBaseline0.779 (0.121)0.737 (0.112).005.458
40.792 (0.114)0.757 (0.111)

Observed outcomes are presented as mean (SD).
VAS: Visual Analogue Scale; MMST: Modified-Modified Schober Test; ODI: Oswestry Disability Index; EQ-5D questionnaire: EuroQol Five Dimensions questionnaire.