Shoulder pain is the third most common musculoskeletal complaint that necessitates physician consultation and significantly diminishes patients’ quality of life. In this review, we analyzed clinical studies that investigated the use of Korean Medicine for the treatment of shoulder pain.
Methods
We searched the online Korean databases, such as KMBase, DBpia, NDSL, RISS, KISS, and OASIS for clinical studies that report the use of Korean Medicine for shoulder pain. We analyzed the included studies with regard to study design, interventions, evaluations, and results.
Results
We analyzed data from the following 29 studies: 14 clinical trials (which included 9 randomized controlled trials) and 15 observational studies (which included 11 case reports). In this review, we observed that post-stroke shoulder pain was the most common cause of shoulder pain, which was reported in 13 out of 29 studies (44.8%), although in actual clinical practice, patients are more likely to present with primary shoulder pain. Most included studies (72.4%) reported manual acupuncture as the most common intervention for shoulder pain. More than 50% of the studies used range of motion (58.6%) and the numeric rating scale (51.7%) to evaluate shoulder function and pain, respectively. Although the result was not statistically significant in all included studies, most studies concluded that Korean Medicine could be considered an effective treatment option in patients with shoulder pain.
Conclusions
Based on analysis of studies included in this review, Korean Medicine can be considered useful clinical treatment for shoulder pain.
Case Reports According to The Quality of Reporting Evaluated by Each Item of CARE Guidelines
Table 1
Search Formula
Database
Search Formula
Number of Results
KMbase
((([ALL=어깨통증] OR [ALL=어깨관절 통증]) OR [ALL=견통]) OR [ALL=견관절통])) AND(((((((([ALL=한방] OR [ALL=한의]) OR [ALL=침]) OR [ALL=약침]) OR [ALL=봉침]) OR [ALL=뜸]) OR [ALL=부항]) OR [ALL=추나])
蓮子肉(Nelumbinis Semen), 薄荷(Menthae Herba), 黃蓮(Coptidis Rhizoma), 甘菊(Chrysanthemi Flos), 酸棗仁(Zizyphi Spinosae Semen), 遠志(Polygalae Radix), 石菖蒲(Acori Graminei Rhizoma), 香附子(Cyperi Rhizoma), 竹茹(Bambusae Caulis In Taeniam) 白茯神(Hoelen cum Pini Radix) etc.
Table 4
Percentage of items Recording according to CARE Guide by Each Case Report
Case Reports
Reporting
Not-Reporting
Sufficient
Not-Sufficient
1st author (year)
n1/N
%
n2/N
%
(n1+n2)/N
%
n3/N
%
Han MG(2000)
16//28
57.14
7/28
25.00
23/28
82.14
5/28
17.85
Shin WY(2006)
16/28
57.14
7/28
25.00
23/28
82.14
5/28
17.85
Kim JH(2011)
18/28
64.28
3/28
10.71
21/28
75.00
7/28
25.00
Kim NH(2011)
11/28
39.28
9/28
32.12
20/28
71.42
8/28
28.57
Jung YG(2012)
17/28
60.71
3/28
10.71
20/28
71.42
8/28
28.57
Lee SJ(2014)
14/28
50.00
8/28
28.57
22/28
78.57
6/28
21.42
Lee HJ(2016)
12/28
42.85
8/28
28.57
20/28
71.42
8/28
28.57
Song KC(2017)
15/28
53.57
5/28
17.85
20/28
71.42
8/28
28.57
Lim HC(2017)
13/28
46.42
9/28
32.12
21/28
75.00
6/28
21.42
Seo HJ(2017)
19/28
67.85
4/28
14.28
23/28
82.14
5/28
17.85
Jeong SJ(2017)
16/28
57.14
6/28
21.42
22/28
78.57
6/28
21.42
1) ‘n1’, ‘n2’, and ‘n3’ mean the number of which items match each assessment-criteria: Sufficient, Not-Sufficient and Not-Reporting, respectively.
2) ‘N’ means the number of applicable items.
Table 5
Percentage of Case Reports with Reporting Items of CARE Guide by Each Item
Section
Item description
Sufficient
Not-Sufficient
Not-Reporting
n/N
%
n/N
%
n/N
%
Title
1
The words “case report” should be in the title along with phenomenon of greatest interest
5/11
45.45
6/11
54.54*
-
-
Key word
2
The key elements of this case in 2–5 words.
8/11
72.72
3/11
27.27
-
-
Abstract
3a
Introduction-What does this case add?
7/11
63.63
4/11
36.36
-
-
3b
Case presentation: - The main symptoms of the patient - The main clinical findings - The main diagnoses and interventions - The main outcomes
5/11
45.45
6/11
54.54*
-
-
3c
Conclusion-What are the main “take-away” lessons from this case?
9/11
81.81
2/11
18.18
-
-
Introduction
4
Brief background summary of the case referencing the relevant medical literature.
10/11
90.90
1/11
9.09
-
-
Patient information
5a
Demographic information of the patient (age, gender, ethnicity, occupation)
10/11
90.90
1/11
9.09
-
-
5b
Main symptoms of the patient (his or her chief complaints)
10/11
90.90
1/11
9.09
-
-
5c
Medical, family, and psychosocial history-including diet, life style and genetic information whenever possible and details about relevant comorbidities and past interventions and their outcomes
4/11
36.36
6/11
54.54*
-
-
Clinical findings
6
Describe the relevant physical examination (PE) and other significant clinical findings.
9/11
81.81
2/11
18.18
-
-
Timeline
7
Depict Important dates and times in the case (table or figure)
1/11
9.09
9/11
81.81*
1/11
9.09
Diagnostic assessment
8a
Diagnostic methods (such as PE, laboratory testing, imaging, questionnaires)
9/11
81.81
2/11
18.18
-
-
8b
Diagnostic challenges (such as financial or language/cultural)
-
-
-
-
11/11
100.00*
8c
Diagnostic reasoning including other diagnoses considered
5/11
45.45
4/11
36.36
2/11
18.18
8d
Prognostic characteristics (such as staging in oncology) where applicable
2/11
18.18
2/11
18.18
7/11
63.63*
Therapeutics interventions
9a
Types of intervention (such as pharmacologic, surgical, preventive, self-care)
11/11
100.00
-
-
-
-
9b
Administration of intervention (such as dosage, strength, duration)
5/11
45.45
6/11
54.54*
-
-
9c
Changes in intervention (with rationale)
1/11
9.09
5/11
45.45
5/11
45.45
Follow-up and outcomes
10a
Clinician and patient-assessed outcomes (when appropriate)
10/11
90.90
1/11
9.09
-
-
10b
Important follow-up diagnostic evaluations and other test results (positive or negative)
10/11
90.90
1/11
9.09
-
-
10c
Intervention adherence and tolerability (and how this was assessed)
-
-
-
-
11/11
100.00*
10d
Adverse and unanticipated events
-
-
-
-
11/11
100.00*
Discussion
11a
Strengths and limitations of the management of this case-with references
10/11
90.90
1/11
9.09
-
-
11b
Relevant medical literature
11/11
100.00
-
-
-
-
11c
Rationale for conclusions (including assessment of cause and effect)
6/11
54.54
5/11
45.45
-
-
11d
Main “take-away” lessons of this case report
9/11
81.81
-
-
2/11
18.18
Patient perspective
12
The patient should share their perspective or experience whenever possible.
-
-
-
-
11/11
100.00*
Informed consent
13
Did the patient give informed consent? Please provide if requested.
-
-
-
-
11/11
100.00*
1) ‘n’ means the number of which case reports match each assessment criteria of items: Sufficient, Not-Sufficient, Not-Reporting, respectively.
2) ‘N’ means that the number of case reports having applicable items.
3) ‘*’ means that the percentage of not-reporting items or not-sufficiently reporting items more than 50%
* The acupoints in this table are used in two or more studies.
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