Objective: To observe the clinical therapeutic effect of tongue acupuncture plus speech training for treatment of apoplectic aphasia.

Methods: These clinical trails were made up of 65 cases of apoplexy inpatients. Among them, 30 cases were apoplectic aphasia including 16 cases of anandia, 4 cases of dyslalia and 7 cases of mixed aphasia. The duration of disease was from 1 week to more than 3 months. The other 35 cases were divided into control group I (n=20) and control group II (n=15). Acupoints of the tongue used were Shengen, bilateral Zhuoquan, bilateral Yepang and bilateral Zhimai. The needles were respectively inserted into the above-mentioned acupoints to a depth of about 1 .0 to 1 .5 cun. Each of the patients was given with a score before and 2 and 4 weeks after treatment by using Chinese aphasia assessing method. Patient of the combined treatment group were treated with acupuncture + speech training, patients of control II group were treated with only speech training and those of control I group were given without any one of acupuncture or speech training. Routine treatment was given to all the patients.

Results: After treatment, of the 30 cases in treatment group, 13 cases (43.3%) were cured, 10 (33.3%) had marked improvement, 5 (16.7%) had improvement and 2 (6.7%) had no any evident changes, with the effective rate being 76.7%. Of the 20 cases in control group I, 2 cases (10%) were cured, 4 (20%) had marked improvement, 12 (60%) had improvement and 2 (10%) were ineffective, with the effective rate being 30%; while in control group II, of the 15 cases, 3 cases (20%) were cured, 4 (26.7%) had marked improvement, 6 (40%) had improvement and 2 (13.3) were ineffective, with the effective rate being 50%. The combined treatment with acupuncture plus speech training was significantly superior to control group II and I in the therapeutic effect (p<0.01).

Conclusion: tongue acupuncture plus speech training is suitable to be used for treatment of all kinds of apoplectic aphasia.

By Shao Fenyang