title: Effectiveness of heat-sensitive moxibustion in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lumbar disc herniation is a common and costly problem. Moxibustion is employed to relieve symptoms and might therefore act as a therapeutic alternative. Many studies have already reported encouraging results in heat-sensitive moxibustion for lumbar disc herniation. Hence, we designed a randomized controlled clinical trial to investigate the effectiveness of heat-sensitive moxibustion compared with conventional moxibustion.
  
  
  METHODS
  This trial is a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial. The 316 eligible patients are randomly allocated to two different groups. The experimental group is treated with heat-sensitive moxibustion (n = 158); while the control group (n = 158) is treated with conventional moxibustion. The moxibustion locations are different for the groups. The experimental group selects heat-sensitization acupoints from the region which consists of bilateral Da Changshu (BL25) and Yao Shu (Du2). Meanwhile, fixed acupoints are used in control group; patients in both groups receive 18 sessions in 2 weeks.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study design guarantees a high internal validity for the results. It is one large-scale randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of heat-sensitive moxibustion compared to conventional moxibustion and may provide evidence for this therapy as a treatment for moderate and severe lumbar disc herniation. Moreover, the result may uncover the inherent laws to improve the therapeutic effect with suspended moxibustion.
authors: The Affiliated Hospital of Jiangxi University of TCM, Nanchang, Jiangxi, PR China.
authors: Mingren
authors: M
authors: Chen
authors: Rixin
authors: R
authors: Chen
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Xiong
authors: Fan
authors: F
authors: Yi
authors: Zhenhai
authors: Z
authors: Chi
authors: Bo
authors: B
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002985:Clinical Protocols; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D007405:Intervertebral Disc Displacement / Q000628:therapy*; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae; D009071:Moxibustion; D011446:Prospective Studies