Laser acupuncture treatment of spinal degeneration
In recent years, the Vinh Long Provincial Health Care Board has applied semiconductor laser photoacupuncture to effectively treat degenerative lumbar spine disease and heel spurs in many patients.
This is a scientific topic led by Dr. Luu Thanh Giu, Deputy Head of the Department of Health Care and Protection of Cadres, and a group of doctors from the department, which was reported at the Central Internal Medicine Conference held in 2011 at Thong Nhat Hospital (Ho Chi Minh City).
The Vinh Long Provincial Cadre Health Care Board is a unit that assists the Provincial Party Committee in protecting and taking care of the health of cadres who are subject to the Central Government's regulations on health protection and preferential policies of the province, including many elderly people.
Illustration photo. (Source: Internet)
Through monitoring, the number of patients with pain due to spinal degeneration coming for examination and treatment every year has increased. Since 2007, when implementing the scientific topic "Application of semiconductor laser photoacupuncture to effectively treat degenerative lumbar spine disease," the Board has organized screening for general osteoarthritis for 120 people, of which 80 people through X-ray with degenerative lumbar spine disease were included in the research for treatment with low-power semiconductor laser photoacupuncture.
Doctor Luu Thanh Giu, Deputy Head of the Health Care Department of Vinh Long Province, said that this is a non-drug treatment method, combining Eastern and Western medicine in the application of semiconductor laser photoacupuncture to treat patients. The treatment time to achieve high results for a case of pain caused by degenerative lumbar spine spurs using semiconductor laser photoacupuncture must last from 2 to 3 courses (a course of treatment includes 20 times), one treatment per day, each irradiation lasts from 20 to 30 minutes. This includes the treatment time to cure the disease, the consolidation treatment time.
Regarding equipment, the Vinh Long Cadre Health Care Protection Board is currently using three semiconductor laser acupuncture machines manufactured by Professor Tran Minh Thai at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, each machine has 10 acupuncture heads.
During the treatment of patients with semiconductor laser photoacupuncture, there are no harmful side effects for the patient because the laser works in the near infrared wave range with low power, which does not affect the patient's blood pressure, heart rate, blood count, liver function, sugar level, and fat level in both immediate and accumulated forms.
Due to the effective treatment, the number of patients coming to the Department of Health Care for Staff for treatment of pain caused by degenerative lumbar spine spurs is increasing.
In 2009, there were 1,371 patients coming for treatment, in 2010 it increased to 1,507 patients and in 2011 it increased sharply to 2,862 patients, most of whom had degenerative spondylosis at the L4-5 S1 position. Most of these patients had had lumbar pain for a long time and had been treated with many methods such as using folk medicine (hot compresses with salt, leaves...) or acupuncture according to traditional medicine, or with Western medicine, the disease recurred many times, and finally there was an acute episode of severe pain, so they came to the Department for treatment.
However, to ensure that patients with chronic lumbar pain due to degenerative spine spurs recover soon, they need to persevere in walking every day and not stop intermittently.
Currently, the Vinh Long Provincial Health Care and Protection Board has a project to build a Nursing Center in Truong An Commune (Vinh Long City) in the period of 2012-2014 with 60 beds, total construction and equipment costs of over 100 billion VND to expand the application of this drug-free treatment method to effectively treat patients with lumbar pain due to degenerative spine spurs for officials and people in the province.
It is expected that the Vinh Long Provincial Health Care and Protection Board will equip four more semiconductor laser photoacupuncture machines and enhance professional training for medical staff to meet the health care needs of officials in the province./.
according to VNA