Presentation summary

Objective :
To investigate the influence of body mass index (BMI) on acupuncture for sciatica fromherniated disk.

Methods :
A secondary analysis of data from a multicenter, randomized controlled trial was performed. A total of 216 patients with sciatica from herniated disk were randomly divided into the acupuncture group (n=108) and the sham acupuncture group (n=108). Obligatory acupoints for the acupuncture group weredachangshu (BL25) and guanyuanshu (BL26), with five matching acupoints according to the meridian differentiation. For the sham acupuncture group, seven points that were unrelated to any channel or acupoint were selected. For all groups, the intervention lasted 30 min per session, 10 sessions of acupuncture or sham acupuncture over 4 weeks. Patients were divided into two subgroups based on BMI: the normal weight subgroup (BMI<24) and the overweight/obese subgroup (BMI≥24). The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for legpain and the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) were measured at baseline and week 4.

Results :
In the normal weight subgroup, the changes from baseline in VAS for leg pain and ODI in the acupuncture group were significantly higher than those in the sham acupuncture group at week 4 (P < 0.001). In the overweight/obesesubgroup, the changes from baseline in VAS for leg pain and ODI in the acupuncture group were significantly higher than those in the sham acupuncture group at week 4 (P < 0.05). There was no interaction between BMI and group in both VAS for leg pain and ODI at week 4 (P>0.05). Conclusion: Acupuncture is effective for patients with sciatica from herniated disk across different body mass index, and its efficacy is not influenced by body mass index. This suggests that acupuncture can serve as an effective non-pharmacological treatment forsciatica from herniated disk.