Warming Needle Eases Severe Pain During Menses: A Case and Thermographic Measurement

Abstract

Abstract

Background:

Dysmenorrhea is a very common disease in China and the Western world. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), this condition mostly relates to Coldness pathogeny. Based on TCM, a warming needle acupuncture technique dredges out the Coldness to ease pain.

Objective:

The goal of this case report is to demonstrate how an increase in skin temperature following warming needle acupuncture could alleviate serious periodic pelvic pain in a patient with dysmenorrhea.

Patient, Intervention, and Testing:

A 27-year-old woman had a history of dysmenorrhea with an onset of 15 months prior to presentation. Using FLIR i7 thermography equipment, many skin-temperature measurements were performed during this patients' warming needle treatment.

Main Outcome Measures:

In addition to the thermographical registrations, the patient's degree of pain and the results of treatment were assessed with a visual analogue scale.

Results:

The warming needle treatment eased the pain of this patient effectively and immediately. The skin temperature of acupoint CV 4 (Guanyuan, on the lower abdomen) was 4°C lower than that in the control area to the left of the observational point when the patient began to have serious pelvic pain. When her pain had subsided, there was no difference in skin temperature between CV 4 and the control area.

Conclusions:

With the onset of dysmenorrheal pain, skin temperature of the lower abdomen at the locus of pain is lower than that of a nonpainful area on the abdomen. After acupuncture stimulation, or when the pain is relieved, skin temperature returns to normal values. It can be concluded that there is a relationship between pain and skin temperature. However, further research on that topic is needed.