The author has made a survey of 41 papers concerning plantalgia published recently. The result of the survey indicates that acupuncture and moxibustion are quite effective for plantalgia which may prevent the relapse of plantalgia and the therapeutic effect is remarkable. The total effective rate reported ranges from 81.3% to 100%, the majority of the results reported is over 95%. According to the papers, treatment is made mainly by using nearby points, such as tender point, which is used 19 times in the treatment as mentioned in the 41 papers. Local points of kidney meridian and bladder meridian are also used, such as Taixi (KI 3), Kunlun (BL 60) and Pucan (BL 61) as they may improve blood circulation and nutrition of the diseased area, benefit metabolism, eliminate edema and inflammation of nerves and soft tissues around the affected area due to press exerted on them by the hyperplastic bone so that a new balance of organism is obtained. In the papers it is mentioned that distil points used as well which are mainly selected from the upper limbs, such as Daling (PC 7) and heal pain point [located 0.8 cun below Daling (PC 7) ]. These points may stop pain via the transmitting action of meridians. In addition, treatment conducted with only a single point is quite common, such as the point behind Rangu (KI 2) or Yuji (LU 10), or Jianqixue, Jianzuxue and Gentongxue, which pectain to empirical points for plantalgia. However according to the papers, body acupuncture therapy and moxibustion are the main methods in the treatment of plantalgia. In 9 out of the 41 papers it is reported that active or passive exercise of the diseased foot has been made during the treatment, which may improve curative effect as movement of the foot induces needling sensation in the punctured region. Acupuncture associated with movement of the foot causes warmth of the foot so that blood circulation of the surrounding tissue may be improved, which would help the restoration of the strained tissues, reduce the reaction of inflammation, absorb the congestion and edema resulted from the inflammation, and decrease the irritation of the free nerve ending caused by the exudation of inflammation, meanwhile, the density of algogenic substance is reduced and the pain threshold increased. Thus, attention should be paid clinically to the movement of the foot during the treatment. At present, there are some problems remaining in the clinical study of acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for plantalgia, such as lack of control group and objective observation index, no standard assessment criterion and necessary statistics of the treatment, some therapies just used by a few limited cases. In the papers the mechanism of the treatment has hardly been mentioned, it seems that much attention has been paid to the applicability rather than scientism.

By Wei Lixin