Trial reportMedicine2020
Efficacy and safety of thread embedding acupuncture combined with acupuncture for chronic low back pain: A randomized, controlled, assessor-blinded, multicenter clinical trial.
Trial report in Medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Systematic Review to Inform a World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Practice Guideline: Benefits and Harms of Needling Therapies for Chronic Primary Low Back Pain in Adults.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2023Pooled it
- Cost-utility analysis of acupotomy combined with epidural steroid injection for lumbosacral radiculopathy: analysis of randomized controlled trial.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Trial
- Safety Profile of Thread-Embedding Acupuncture: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Predictors of PTSD Symptom Reduction in a Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Prognostic value of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I after isolated non-CABG cardiac surgery.Clinical research in cardiology : official journal of the German Cardiac Society · 2025Article
- Should thread-embedding and auricular acupuncture be combined rather than used individually for non-specific chronic low back pain?: A double-blinded, randomized, sham-controlled trial.Integrative medicine research · 2025Article
- Evaluation of the efficacy of catgut implantation at acupoint in the treatment of musculoskeletal pain: a protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis based on randomized controlled clinical trials.International journal of surgery protocols · 2025Article
- Comparative efficacy of acupuncture, venesection, and physical therapy on chronic low back pain outcomes: a randomized clinical trial.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2024Article
- Review
- Effective Oriental Magic for Analgesia: Acupuncture.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2022Review
- Evaluating the Quality of Reports About Randomized Controlled Trials of Acupuncture for Low Back Pain.Journal of pain research · 2021Review
- Thread-Embedding Acupuncture for the Treatment of Shoulder Instability: Protocol for a Randomized, Controlled, Patient-Assessor Blinded Pilot Study.Journal of pain research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLow back pain is a very common disease. Many patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) have been treated by complementary and alternative medicine such as acupuncture (AT) treatment. A type of AT, thread embedding acupuncture (TEA), consists of a thread that can continually stimulate at the AT points and has mechanical and chemical effects. Although TEA was widely used in clinical practice, there was little evidence of its efficacy and safety for CLBP.
methodsThis clinical trial was randomized, controlled, assessor-blinded, two-armed, parallel, and conducted in multiple centers. Four Korean medical institutions recruited 38 outpatients with CLBP. The participants were randomly allocated to a treatment group (TEA combined with AT) or a control group (only AT) in a 1:1 ratio. All participants received conventional AT twice a week for 8 weeks (16 sessions) at 15 AT points (GV3 and bilateral BL23, BL24, BL25, BL26, BL40, BL60, and EX-B5) and the treatment group participants additionally received TEA once a week for 8 weeks (8 sessions) on 10 AT points in the multifidus, spinal erector, and lumbar quadrate muscles. The primary outcome measure of this study was the change of visual analog scale (VAS) from baseline (0 week) to the end of intervention (8 weeks). Secondary outcome measures included clinically relevant improvement (minimal clinically important difference) and 3% to 50% decrease on VAS, disability level (Korean version of Roland and Morris disability questionnaire), quality of life (Korean version of European quality of life 5dimension), global assessment (patient global impression of change), economic analysis, credibility test, and safety assessment.
resultsThe treatment group showed a significant reduction in VAS scores when compared with the control group (-33.7 ± 25.1 vs -15.6 ± 17.0, P = .013). As for the secondary outcome measures, the treatment group showed significant difference in 50% decrease on VAS and patient global impression of change. There was no serious adverse event associated with TEA and AT.
conclusionThis clinical trial documents the efficacy and safety of TEA combined with AT for the management of CLBP.
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