The Effectiveness of Korean Medicine Treatment Including Ultrasound-Guided Pharmacopuncture on Neck Pain: A Retrospective Chart Review

Objectives This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of Korean medicine treatment including ultrasound-guided pharmacopuncture in patients with neck pain.Methods A retrospective chart review of 20 patients with neck pain who received Korean medicine treatment including ultrasound-guided pharmacopuncture between November 7, 2024 and February 25, 2025 was conducted.The effectiveness of treatment was evaluated using the pain rating scale (PRS), neck disability index (NDI), pain disability index (PDI), and EuroQol 5-dimension 5-level (EQ-5D-5L).Assessments were performed once before treatment and subsequently at every 5-session interval or at the final session for patients who received fewer than 5 sessions but reported full recovery.Results Results Patients received an average of 5.752.77treatment sessions.PRS scores did not satisfy the assumption of normality (p=0.028) and were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, showing a statistically significant decrease in the median score from 7.0 (interquartile range [IQR] 2.5) to 4.5 (IQR 2.0) (Z=-3.949,p<0.001).NDI, PDI, and EQ-5D-5L scores decreased from 21.308.14 to 11.356.37,42.8516.40to 22.1015.12,and 13.004.04to 8.202.57,respectively, all of which satisfied the assumption of normality (p>0.05) and were analyzed using paired t-tests, showing statistically significant differences (p<0.001).Conclusions Korean medicine treatment including ultrasound-guided pharmacopuncture significantly improved symptoms in patients with neck pain.No serious adverse effects were reported.These findings suggest that this treatment may be a useful therapeutic option for neck pain. (