ABSTRACT: One hundred and eighteen cases of paraplegic and quadriplegic patients with different degree of pain were divided into groups, their pain was treated with acupuncture, drug and acupuncture combined with drug respectively. The results show that the total analgesic effect of drug group, acupuncture group and acupuncture combined with drug group are 54.29%, 78.95 % and 95.56% respectively. There is a significant difference (P 0. 05, it had comparability between them (see Table 1 ).
2. Criteria of therapeutic effect: Marked effectiveness, pain is relieved obviously and stopped completely after treatment;

Effectiveness, pain has alleviated to some extent, the grade of pain is decreased after treatment
ineffectiveness, after treatment, pain has not any alleviated, the grade of pain has not changed.

Table 1. Distribution Of the Patients with Different Grades of Pain in Three Groups before Treatment
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Pain                Cases    grade I   grade II    grade III
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Group A         35           15             12                  8
Group B        38           13              14                  11
Group C        45            14             17                 14
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Notes: Group A = group of drugs, group B = group of Acupuncture, group C = group of acupuncture combined with drugs. Grade I= light degree of Pain, grade II = moderate decree of pain, grade III = serious degree of pain.The same below.

3. Results: The therapeutic effects among three groups have an obviously significant difference (X² = 23. 22, P < 0. 01 ); among them, acupuncture group is superior to the group of drugs in the therapeutic effect(X² = 6. 76, P <0. 05 ), group of acupuncture combined with drugs is much better than the group of drugs in the therapeutic effect (X² = 38. 81, P < 0. 01 ); the total effective rate of acupuncture combined with drug is much better than that of drug only (X² = 19. 23, P < 0. 01 ), and is superior to that of acupuncture only (X² = 3. 92, P < 0. 05 ); the total effective rate of acupuncture group is better than that of drug group(X² = 5. 02, P < 0. 05 ) (see Table 2 ).

Table 2. Comparison of Clinical Therapeutic Effects in Different Groups
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Cases             Marked effect      Effectiveness      ineffectiveness    Total effect rate
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Group A         35 7(20.00% )      12(34.29% )         16(45.71% )         54.29%
Group B        38 17(44.74% )     13(34.21% )         8(21.05% )           78.95%
Group C        45 28(62.22% )     15(33.33% )         2(4.44% )            95.56%
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DISCUSSION
The algesic mechanism of paraplegia and quadriplegia has not been known completely, the painful extent has not yet quantitative objective indices, suffering is mainly based on complaint of patients. Although more than 90% patients whose painful locations are all in the completely anesthetic area, the patients usually complain of their pain likes knife cutting, burning, or radiating, it is really unendurable, moreover, it often attacks or is aggravated at night, resulting in some patients lose their confidence in convalescent treatment, even abandon their living wishes. It is considered in traditional Chinese medicine that "pain is due to the obstruction". Acupuncture may clear the channels and collaterals, regulate qi and the blood to improve the conditions of the obstruction of the channels and collaterals, and stagnation of qi-blood in the injured area; acupuncture also has roles of tranquilizing the mind and soothing the liver-qi, thus making the functional activities of qi normalized and relieving pain. The results of this study show that acupuncture can relieve the pain of the patients with paraplegia and quadriplegia, therefore, it can reduce the patients' dependence on drugs; the analgesic effect of acupuncture combined with drugs is the best. This therapy also has a marked effect on some intractable cases in clinic. On the treatment method, authors are the first to use electro-acupuncture at Du Mai, and select remote acupoints along the channel which are at above and below the level of spinal in jury according to the location of pain. The reinforcing method is used in anesthetic area, while the reducing method with strong stimulus is used in the normal sensory area. When the intractable cases are needled, the needle may be retained for several hours, at the same time, we strengthen psychological suggestion and induction to the patients so as to improve analgesia. Previous experiment showed that acupuncture analgesia was a comprehensive process of multiple pathways. All levels of the central nervous system, such as spinal cord, brain stem, thalamus, caudal nucleus and cerebral cortex participate in acupuncture analgesic process. The needling method in this paper accords with the above-mentioned report. Lastly, we wish acupuncture workers to develop the clinical study of acupuncture analgesic mechanism based on the treatment for paraplegic pain.

By Wang Zhengmei, Xia Dazhong