Background

As science and medicine evolves, the average life span of mankind is rapidly being extended. The growing population of the elderly and interest towards well-being is stimulating growth of the complementary medicine market.Acupuncture is one of the most popular treatments to the patients seeking complementary medicine. As patient population receiving acupuncture increases worldwide, needs for a standardized clinical guideline is growing. Among the many diseases treated by Korean medicine, Low back pain ranked the top.

Purpose

The objective of this study is to establish Korean Medicine clinical guideline for non-specific chronic low back pain.

Methods

A task force team to establish the guideline was composed.Literature review was done in order to search for evidence of safety and efficacy of Korean medicine treatment. A survey was done in order to find out how Korean medical doctors derive pattern identification for acupuncture and herbal prescriptions in treating non-specific chronic low back pain. Then, based on the results of literature review and survey, a conference meeting of experts was held. Through the Delphi method, a draft of the Korean medicine clinical guideline for non-specific chronic low back pain was established. Review board, composed of experts of musculoskeletal disorders, public health, statistics, and representatives of patients are modifying the draft.

Results

We have established pre-existing acupuncture guidelines for low back pain and reinforced it by searching recently published papers. Among these data, we focused on non-specific chronic low back pain, excluding acute pain and specific diseases like HIVD.Now we are conducting clinical study, in which acupuncture and thread-embedding therapy is treated for non-specific chronic low back pain.In addition, we are planning new clinical studies about bee-venom acupuncture and herbal medicines which is widely used for low back pain in Korea.Completing these researches, we will finally develop Korean medicine clinical guideline for non-specific chronic low back pain.

Conclusions

More rigorous, well designed and large scaled RCTs in various fields of Korean medicine are in need to improve the quality of clinical guideline.