The effect of warm needle moxibustion on lumbar disc herniation.

Tianchen Lu, Junfeng Zhang, Ying Lv, Yaochi Wu

Open access · greenAbstract read

In one paragraph

Article in American journal of translational research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

10citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it

1.4field-weighted citation impact, top 20% of its field

1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

The effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for low back pain in China: A systematic review and network meta-analysis.PloS one · 2025
Pooled it
Clinical Efficacy of Mechanical Traction as Physical Therapy for Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Meta-Analysis.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2022
Pooled it
Comparison of Needle-Warming Moxibustion and Other Physical Therapies for Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Meta-analysis.Computational and mathematical methods in medicine · 2022
Pooled it
Comparative effectiveness of moxibustion-based combination therapies for lumbar disc herniation: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of 50 randomized trials.Frontiers in neurology
Pooled it
Needle-warming moxibustion alleviates pain in rats with cervical spondylotic radiculopathy by modulating the NF-κB/ROS/NLRP3 pathway.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026
Article
Role of SIRT5 in the analgesic effectiveness of moxibustion at ST36 in mice with inflammatory pain.Heliyon · 2023
Article
Effect of Moxibustion on Inflammatory Cytokines for Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression.Therapeutics and clinical risk management · 2023
Review
Moxibustion as adjuvant therapy for preventing bone loss in postmenopausal women: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.BMJ open · 2022
Article
Effect of traditional Chinese manual therapy on alleviating pain and dysfunction of lumbar disc herniation: a randomized controlled pilot study.American journal of translational research · 2022
Article
The Effect of Thunder-Fire Moxibustion on Lumbar Disc Herniation: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Frontiers in public health · 2022
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Tianchen LuDepartment of Acupuncture and Massage, The Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai, China.

Junfeng ZhangDepartment of Acupuncture and Massage, The Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai, China.

Ying LvDepartment of Acupuncture and Massage, The Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai, China.

Yaochi WuDepartment of Acupuncture and Massage, The Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University Shanghai, China.

Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital · CN

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo investigate the effect of warm needle moxibustion on patients with lumbar disc herniation (LDH).

methodsA total of 100 patients with lumbar disc herniation treated in our hospital were recruited as the study cohort and randomly assigned into a control group and an observation group. The patients in the control group underwent routine acupuncture treatment, while those in the observation group underwent warm needle moxibustion treatment. The observed indexes, including the clinical efficacy, the visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, the Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) scores, the Oswestry disability index (ODI) scores, and the serum inflammatory factor levels were compared between the control group and the observation group.

resultsThe total cure rate in the observation group was significantly higher than it was in the control group (76.0% vs 92%, P=0.029). Compared with the patients in the control group after the treatment, the patients' VAS and ODI scores in the observation group were significantly lower, but their JOA scores were significantly higher, and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.001). Moreover, the serum IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) levels in the observation group were remarkably lower than the corresponding levels in the control group (all P<0.001).

conclusionsWarm needle moxibustion has a significant effect on patients with lumbar disc herniation, because it helps to relieve the pain and other symptoms and reduces the serum inflammatory factor levels.

Indexed as

lumbar disc herniationtherapeutic effectWarm needle moxibustion

Identifiers

PMID34150092

PMCPMC8205828

OpenAlexW3174402272

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.