"Patients with spinal stenosis treated with oriental medicine, 8x surge in 10 years"
Aug 21, 2024
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The Spinal Joint Research Institute (Director Ha In-hyuk) of Jaseng Oriental Hospital announced that it has studied the trends in the use of oriental medical services for representative spinal diseases such as spinal stenosis and disc herniation in Korea and published a related paper in the SCI(E)-level international academic journal `Medicine (IF=1.3).'
Yang Myung-yeol, a research team at the Spinal Joint Research Institute of Jaseng Oriental Hospital, analyzed the trend of using oriental medical services for patients with spinal stenosis and lumbar disc escape (back disk) who received oriental medical treatment more than once a year using statistics from the National Patient Sample (NPS) provided by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) from 2010 to 2019.
As a result of the study, the number of patients with spinal stenosis visiting oriental medical institutions increased, and it was found that it increased 7.85 times in 2019 compared to 2010. It is notable that the number of patients with stenosis who visited oriental medical institutions has increased significantly compared to a more than double increase in the number of patients with spinal stenosis in Korea from 830,000 to 1.72 million during the same period.
Spinal canal stenosis is a disease that compresses nerves as the spinal canal located in the center of the spine narrows. When bending the waist, the spinal canal is temporarily widened and pain is reduced, so it is characterized by not being able to walk in a bent position or walk for a long time. In addition, similar to a herniated disc, the nerves that go down to the legs can be compressed, accompanied by pain such as bursting hips, thighs, and calves, and symptoms of numbness or dull sensation.
According to a recent paper published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine (IF=3.303)', integrated herbal treatments such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, and Chuna therapy have been found to be effective in relieving pain in patients with spinal stenosis. The back pain NRS (pain number evaluation scale) and leg pain NRS (back dysfunction index) in the stenosis patient group, as well as the ODI (back dysfunction index), have improved significantly. In particular, the ODI was 45.72 before treatment, but after 3 weeks of oriental medicine treatment, the ODI at the time of discharge decreased to 33.94. Three years later, it fell to 28.41 and improved to the extent that there were no major problems in daily life.
In addition, the number of patients with lumbar disc herniation visiting oriental medical institutions also increased, increasing 1.36 times in 2019 compared to 2010. Lumbar disc herniation is a vertebral disease commonly referred to as 'Lumbar disc', and causes an inflammatory reaction after the vertebral and intervertebral disc (disc) between the vertebrae has degenerative or traumatic injuries. Although stenosis worsens pain when walking or standing and relieves pain when sitting, lumbar disc herniation often decreases pain when walking or standing.
Yang Myung-yeol, an oriental doctor at the Spinal Joint Research Institute of Jaseng Oriental Medicine Hospital, said "This study confirmed that the use of oriental medicine in patients with spinal diseases is increasing."I hope that in the future, it will help patients with spinal diseases manage their health by increasing the coverage and accessibility of integrated oriental medicine treatment."
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