A prospective comparative study was used to evaluate the clinical effect of extracorporeal shock wave therapy combined with acupuncture therapy on diabetes with periarthritis of the shoulder.

54 patients with diabetes and periarthritis who were treated in the Department of Orthopaedics, Shijiazhuang Second Hospital from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017 were prospectively collected and randomly divided into the extracorporeal shock wave therapy and acupuncture treatment group (27 Patients had 27 shoulders) and the extracorporeal shock wave group (27 patients had 27 shoulders). The two groups were given a course of treatment (a total of 5 treatments, 1 week apart) for routine follow-up. The follow-up periods were: at the end of the treatment, 1 week after the end of treatment, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. Changes in pain symptoms at various time points before and after treatment were evaluated by visual analog scale (VAS). One-year shoulder function assessment uses joint mobility measurements to assess changes before and after treatment. The overall effect after 1 year of treatment was evaluated by comprehensive evaluation of symptom relief and joint mobility, and was divided into four levels: cured, markedly effective, improved, and ineffective.

A total of 44 patients completed the follow-up inspections, including 24 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group. The analysis of variance of repeated measurement design of VAS score before and after treatment in experimental group and control group showed that there was statistical significance in the difference of VAS score between experimental group and control group, and there was interaction between groups and time points, except that there was no statistical significance in the difference between the two groups before and at the end of treatment (P>0.05), the difference between the two groups at other time points was statistically significant (F=5.312, F=2.711, P<0.05). The results of the last follow-up (all≥12 months) showed that the overall effect of ESW combined with acupuncture group was better than that of the control group, the difference was statistically significant (χ²=4.175, P=0.041). The cure rates of the two groups were 79.2% and 50.0%, respectively.

Compared with pure shock wave therapy, shock wave combined with acupuncture therapy has better clinical effects, and it can be considered as a conventional treatment method for diabetes combined with periarthritis of the shoulder.