BACKGROUND: This randomized, controlled trial was designed to assess whether acupuncture plus an oral administration of Chinese herbal medicine provides greater relief of symptoms than oral administration of Chinese herbal medicine alone for treatment of pelvic inflammatory sequelae.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Sixty-two patients ages 22 to 45 years with pelvic inflammatory sequelae were randomly assigned into one of 2 groups: an herbal group (n=30) and an herbal with acupuncture group (n=32). Both groups were treated for 3 courses of 3 months each.

RESULTS: Significant improvement of clinical symptoms and signs of pelvic inflammatory sequelae occurred in both treatment groups. The total effective rate for the herbal group was 83.33%, and for the herbal with acupuncture group it was 100% (P=0.354 for difference between groups). During treatment, 5 patients had adverse reactions of nausea, loss of appetite, and diarrhea. After adjustment of the herb prescription, all adverse reactions disappeared.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results highlight the benefit of oral administration of Chinese herbal medicine along with acupuncture; this had a greater clinical curative effect rate than oral administration of Chinese herbal medicine alone when treating pelvic inflammatory sequelae.

Keywords: clinical research, Pelvic Inflammatory Sequelae, traditional chinese medicine, herbal, Acupuncture