Acupuncture for Treatment of Chronic Low-Back Pain Caused by Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: A Case Series

Background: Chronic pain caused by lumbar stenosis remains a challenging clinical issue. There is a lack of consensus about the use of acupuncture as a potential treatment for lumbar stenosis. Objective: The aim of this study was to review experience with using acupuncture treatment for decreasing pain symptoms and improving functional mobility and activities of daily living (ADL) in patients with lumbar stenosis. Design, Setting, and Patients: Retrospective telephone interviews were completed with 7 adult patients with lumbar stenosis who received acupuncture treatment. Intervention: Patients received various amounts of acupuncture treatments, and some patients underwent adjunctive physical therapy. The subjects were presented with a scale of 0-5 to assess improvement. Five indicated an improvement (pain symptoms eliminated, functional mobility returned to baseline) and zero indicated no improvement. Main Outcome Measures: The main outcomes sought were reduction of pain and improvements in functional mobility and ADLs. Results: Of the 7 subjects, 2 showed reduction of pain and improvement of function. The remaining 5 patients had no improvement. In the patients with symptom improvement, there was a lack of radicular pain prior to acupuncture treatment, an increase in the number of acupuncture sessions, and adjunctive physical therapy. Conclusions: Acupuncture may be a useful adjunctive therapy in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis without radicular pain. More treatment sessions and concomitant physical therapy may improve results with acupuncture in this setting. Key Words: Acupuncture, Lumbar Stenosis, Physical Therapy, Sciatic Pain