Mechanism of Acupuncture and Moxibustion on Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome: A Narrative Review of Animal Studies

Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is a genitourinary disease commonly seen in males, with symptoms involving pelvic pain, urinary system disease, and sexual dysfunction, which seriously affects physical and mental health, and it also influences the quality of life of patients. At present, the disease’s aetiology and pathogenesis are unclear, and there is also no effective treatment for it. Acupuncture and moxibustion have been a way to CP/CPPS, showing good curative effect with advantages of safety and affordability. However, the relevant research in this field is less discussed. By adopting databases, such as CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, PubMed, and Medline, this review article used keywords including chronic prostatitis, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, and electric acupuncture, manual acupuncture, moxibustion, and animal experiments, rats, mice, and mechanism research and reviewing research papers published from 1998 to 2021. Then, it further summarized and evaluated the mechanism research and gave a brief comment about modeling methods, acupoints selection, and stimulus parameters that have been used in the selected research papers. Equally important, this review article proposes a reference for the in-depth study of the mechanism of acupuncture and moxibustion on CP/CPPS and provides a theoretical basis to better treat the disease in the clinic.

Treatment of Recalcitrant Plantar Wart Unresponsive to Cryotherapy with Acupuncture and Moxibustion: A Case Report

Objectives: Plantar wart is a common viral skin disease caused by human papillomavirus infection and poses a therapeutic challenge in the paediatric patient population. Acupuncture and moxibustion are effective treatments for a wide range of skin conditions.Case report: This study presents the case of a 9-year-old girl for whom complete resolution of recalcitrant warts was achieved with acupuncture and moxibustion treatment.Results: After 20-week treatment, the wart lesions and pain were completely resolved. At the 6-month follow-up, the lesions remained fully resolved.Conclusion: This result suggests that acupuncture and moxibustion could be effective therapeutic strategies for plantar warts.

A Case of Intractable Hiccup Treated by Acupuncture and Moxibustion

Hiccup is a syndrome characterized by continuous sound in the throat, short and frequent sound, and difficult to stop [1]. Although the disease is not life-threatening, it seriously affects the quality of life of patients. Long term intractable hiccup will also have an impact on the psychology of patients and bring great trouble to patients. Hiccup is equivalent to diaphragmatic spasm in western medicine and involves a variety of systemic diseases [2]. At present, the treatment of this disease includes drugs and nerve block, but the curative effect and prognosis are not ideal. Acupuncture and moxibustion, as a green and simple treatment method, has unique curative effect in the treatment of hiccup. Now the test of one case of intractable hiccup caused by ineffective treatment is as follows.

Pilot Study of Blood Perfusion Changes at PC4 and Its Surrounding Points Induced by Acupuncture and Moxibustion

Acupuncture and moxibustion are widely used in clinical practice; however, the differences between their mechanisms are unclear. In the present study, the response of blood perfusion resulting from acupuncture or moxibustion at Ximen (PC4) and its surrounding points was explored. Using the wavelet method, the differences in the frequency interval of blood flux were observed. Furthermore, the correlations between these points were analyzed. The results suggested that moxibustion could significantly improve blood flow perfusion at PC4 compared to acupuncture; however, there was no significant difference around PC4. The response of blood flux at PC4 to different stimulations was related to the frequency V (0.4–1.6 Hz) component. However, a difference in response at other points was not observed. Correlation analysis showed that both acupuncture and moxibustion could cause a decline in the correlation of blood flux signals at these recorded points, but there was no significant difference between these techniques. The results suggested that, at least in the forearm, the acupuncture or moxibustion only influenced the level of blood perfusion locally.