Combined treatment of traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), a common complication of diabetes, has a high morbidity, and currently there is no effective therapy. To investigate the clinical effect of traditional Chinese medicine in combination with Western medicine, 88 patients with early DPN who were admitted to Binzhou City Center Hospital, Shandong, China, between November 2015 and November 2016, were selected as the research subjects and were randomly divided into a control group and an observation. Patients in the control group were treated by conventional Western medicine, while patients in the observation group were treated by traditional Chinese medicine in addition to conventional Western medicine. The clinical effect was compared between the two groups. The results demonstrated that the overall effective rate of the observation group was much higher than that of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (P less than 0.05). The vibration perception threshold (VPT) of nervus peroneus communis, nervus suralis and posterior tibial nerve of the two groups significantly declined after treatment (P less than 0.05), however, the decreae in the observation group was more obvious (P less than 0.05). The improvement of glycosylated hemoglobin (HbAlc) and blood glucose of the observation group was superior to that of the control group, and the difference had statistical significance (P less than 0.05). In conclusion, traditional Chinese medicine in combination with Western medicine has a remarkable effect in the treatment of DPN and can effectively relieve vital signs and clinical symptoms of patients and significantly improve nerve conduction velocity. The therapy is worth clinical application and promotion.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes