Objective: To observe the therapeutic effect of comprehensive therapies of Guasa, arupuncture, cupping and massage on arthralgia-syndrome.

Methods: (l) 1000 cases of arthralgia -syndrome patients were chosen according to the diagnosis standards formulated by "The Symposium on Diagnosis Standards of Syndromes of TCM" held in Beijing in 1986; (2) These patients were treated with combined therapies of acupuncture (first), Guasa, cupping and massage, once every other day. Five times were made up of one thgrapeutic course. Acupoints used were Ashi-points, special-effective points and those selected according to differentiation of syndromes. These acupoints were needled and stimulated for 20 min. When performing Guasa stimulation, smeared a layer of special-made oil on the surface of the skin first, performed rubbing, pushing and pinching manipulations to scale the skin forcefully for about 15min.Then performed cupping over the scaled skin area for 5 min. At last, performed kneading, pinching and pushing massage manipulations at the same skin region for 15 min.

Results: After treatment with the aforementioned methods, of the 1000 cases, 229 (23%) were cured, 248 (24.8%) had marked improvement, 300 (30%) had improvement and 222 (22.2%) had no any clear changes. The total effective rate was 77.8%.

By Liu Jiarui, Cai Shuhe & Jiang Zheng.