Acupuncture and Moxibustion Ward III（南岗总院）

Ward 3 of the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion

2022.11

I. Department Overview

Ward 3 of the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion is a key specialty of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine — the Encephalopathy Specialty, the Acupuncture Specialty of the Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the construction unit for the Stroke Specialty of the Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine; it is the lead unit for the clinical pathway for ophthalmoplegia among the national traditional Chinese medicine clinical pathways, and is a key department for clinical acupuncture research in our hospital. The department has a strong workforce and refined diagnostic and treatment techniques, and is a neurology treatment specialty integrating medical care, scientific research and teaching. It has 60 authorized beds and 22 medical and nursing staff: 1 doctoral supervisor, 1 chief physician, 1 associate chief physician, 7 attending physicians, 2 resident physicians, 2 postdoctoral fellows, 6 doctors and 5 masters.

At present, the department has developed a treatment profile that combines “acupuncture–Chinese herbal medicine–rehabilitation” and synchronises “pharmacological treatment–non-pharmacological therapy–psychotherapy”. On the basis of inheriting and applying traditional Chinese medicine methods such as acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine to treat advantageous conditions including cerebrovascular disease (cerebral infarction, cerebral haemorrhage), post-traumatic brain syndrome, spinal cord injury, ophthalmoplegia, bulbar palsy, dementia, facial palsy, insomnia, depression, anxiety, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Guillain-Barré syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia, migraine, vertigo, cervical spondylosis and lumbar spondylosis, the department has also introduced advanced rehabilitation concepts and treatment equipment from home and abroad, and through comprehensive regulation of patients will help them to escape the distress of disease as quickly as possible, improve their quality of life, achieve self-care and return early to family and society. More than 1,000 patient admissions are treated each year, and the treatment response rate is as high as 99%.

The department develops medical care, teaching and scientific research in step, with abundant scientific research results: it has received 1 first prize of the Science and Technology Award of the China Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion”, 1 “second prize of the Science and Technology Award of the China Association of Chinese Medicine”, 5 second prizes of the provincial government, 1 third prize of the provincial government, 2 first prizes of the Provincial Higher Education Teaching Achievement Award, and has published more than 100 papers (including 4 indexed by EI and 4 indexed by SCI). It undertakes 2 national-level research projects and 38 projects at other levels, has participated in the compilation of 11 national planned textbooks and co-authored more than 10 books. It undertakes the teaching of courses such as Neurology, Diagnostics of Neurological Localisation, Acupuncture and Moxibustion, and Acupuncture Therapeutics. It has trained 26 doctoral students and 108 master's students.

Since its establishment, the department has determined to “take the patient as the centre and the improvement of medical quality, management and medical service standards as the focus of its work.” In a spirit of high responsibility towards the medical cause, it treats people with sincerity and strives for excellence, working hard to create good medical ethics and a good medical environment, and seeking to provide every patient with high-quality, high-standard, standardised and individualised comprehensive treatment.

II. Scope of Diagnosis and Treatment

1. Encephalopathy: cerebral haemorrhage, cerebral infarction, post-traumatic brain syndrome, subarachnoid haemorrhage, limb paralysis and aphasia caused by encephalitis, etc.

2. Spinal cord injury: motor, sensory and autonomic nerve dysfunction caused by spinal cord trauma, myelitis, spinal cord tumours and syringomyelia, urinary retention and urinary incontinence, etc.

3. Peripheral nerve injury: facial neuritis, multiple cranial neuritis, polyneuropathy, radial nerve palsy, ulnar nerve palsy, common peroneal nerve palsy, Guillain-Barré syndrome, etc.

4. Dementia: vascular dementia, Alzheimer's disease, mixed dementia, mild cognitive impairment, alcoholic encephalopathy, etc.

5. Painful diseases: migraine, trigeminal neuralgia, intercostal neuralgia, occipital neuralgia, brachial plexus neuralgia, sciatica, etc.

6. Cervical and lumbar spinal diseases: cervical spondylosis, lumbar disc herniation, acute lumbar sprain, etc.

7. Sleep disorders: insomnia, depression, anxiety, narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome, restless legs syndrome, etc.

8. Intractable diseases: ophthalmoplegia, bulbar palsy, hemifacial spasm, vertigo, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, narcolepsy, motor neuron disease, multiple system atrophy, etc.

III. Clinical Features

At present, the department has developed a treatment profile that combines “acupuncture–Chinese herbal medicine–rehabilitation” and “synchronises pharmacological treatment with non-pharmacological therapy and psychotherapy”.

The advanced distinctive therapies adopted by our department include:

Feature 1: Alternating flexor–extensor low-frequency acupoint electrical stimulation therapy. This therapy proposes the new approach of the “alternating flexor–extensor method for the treatment of upper-limb motor dysfunction”, and has successively developed three generations of alternating flexor–extensor low-frequency acupoint electrical therapeutic apparatus, achieving orderly joint movement and ranking at the advanced domestic level. The related results have received 2 second prizes of the provincial government.

Feature 2: Combined acupuncture–rehabilitation therapy. This therapy adopts cluster needling of scalp acupoints combined with rehabilitation techniques; it is an inheritance, development and innovation of the cluster needling method of scalp acupoints, prominently embodies the advantages of the dynamic treatment approach to stroke, organically combines acupuncture therapeutics with neurological rehabilitation, maximally reduces the symptoms of neurological deficit after stroke, inhibits abnormal recovery patterns in patients, prevents complications, improves quality of life, and provides new ideas and methods for stroke rehabilitation.

Feature 3: Electroacupuncture in the good limb position. For acupuncture treatment of hemiplegic patients, we incorporate the rehabilitation concept of the good limb position; needling treatment performed with the patient in the good limb position is conducive to preventing and controlling the emergence of abnormal patterns in patients.

Feature 4: Sleep Centre. The department hosts the Sleep Centre of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, which consists of three parts: the sleep clinic, the sleep monitoring control room and the sleep monitoring room. It mainly targets the monitoring and treatment of various sleep disorders, such as insomnia, narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome, restless legs syndrome, RBD, anxiety disorder, depression and somatoform disorder. The centre carries out polysomnography (PSG), portable sleep apnoea monitoring, the multiple sleep latency test, the maintenance of wakefulness test, PSG-PAP and various other monitoring items, scientifically and accurately diagnosing sleep-related diseases. It combines cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) with traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and other methods for the comprehensive treatment of insomnia. The Sleep Centre aims to use advanced technologies and protocols from home and abroad to achieve precise diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorder-related diseases and to safeguard the healthy sleep of patients.

Feature 5: Du-meridian-regulating sliding cupping. Because stroke patients are bedridden for long periods, their lower back function is poor and muscle tone is high, so that many patients whose lower-limb muscle strength should permit standing and walking are unable to stand; we therefore apply sliding cupping on the back to free the meridians and collaterals, strengthen the muscle strength of the trunk muscles and relieve tone, so as to help patients stand and walk and improve their living ability.

Feature 6: Warm acupuncture. For patients with post-stroke bowel and bladder dysfunction and cold limbs, in addition to local needling we apply moxibustion on the needles, which has the effect of warming and freeing the meridians and moving qi and blood; the clinical therapeutic effect is marked.

Feature 7: Cluster needling of scalp acupoints with prolonged needle retention and intermittent needle manipulation. On the basis of ancient records and extensive clinical and basic research, Professor Yu Zhishun proposed the “needle field” hypothesis, and according to the “needle field” theory proposed a new scalp acupoint zoning and stimulation method — “Yu's scalp acupuncture”. At present, Yu's scalp acupuncture has been widely applied in clinical practice and has played a marked positive role in the treatment of stroke.

Feature 8: Nape acupuncture therapy. This therapy received a second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. Through years of clinical and neurobiological basic research, this project found an effective acupuncture protocol for the treatment of true bulbar palsy, added a treatment method for the stubborn disease of bulbar palsy, perfected the theory of acupuncture therapeutics, filled the gap in the treatment of intractable neurological diseases, and gave play to the unique role of Chinese medicine, especially acupuncture, in the field of modern medicine.