Abstract

The objective of this study was to explore the therapeutic effect of analgesics combined with acupuncture on postherpetic neuralgia. 52 individuals suffering with postherpetic neuralgia were selected from Zhuzhou Central Hospital from January 2020 to 2021 and were divided into three groups who were treated with analgesics, acupuncture and combination of analgesics with acupuncture. All the individuals were evaluated for pain intensity, length of hospital stay and quality of life before and after 7 d of the treatment. Pain intensity and quality of life were evaluated using the visual analogue scale and medical outcomes study short form-36 health survey. Before treatment, no difference among three groups in their baseline characters like age, gender, visual analogue scale score and short form-36 were found (p>0.05). The visual analogue scale scoring of analgesia+acupuncture group significantly decreased compared with those of the analgesia and acupuncture groups on 3^rd and 7^th d ((p<0.0001 and p=0.003) and (p<0.0001 and p=0.109)). Analgesia+acupuncture group exhibited significantly shorter length of hospital stay than the other two groups (p<0.0001). On 7^th d after treatment, short form-36 score of analgesia+acupuncture group was better than the other two groups (p<0.0001). This study promotes the treatment of patients with postherpetic neuralgia using analgesics with acupuncture which can help to relieve pain, shorten the hospital stay and improve the quality of life.