Preliminary observation on effect of cupping on the skin surface temperature of patients with back pain

Objective To preliminarily observe the effects of cupping on localized skin temperature of patients with back pain. Methods A total of 43 patients with back pain were included in this study. They were treated with medium-sized cups with a volume of 260 mL. The randomly selected Xīnshū ( BL 15) on one side (37 cases) was given cupping treatment while that on the other side as the control. And Shenshū ( BL 23) (6 cases) was treated in the same way. The thermal infrared imager was used to record the changes in localized skin temperature before and after cupping (for 10 minutes), and then comparison was made with that of the control side. Results After cupping, the localized skin temperature fell and then rose. When the cup was removed after retaining for 10 minutes, the localized skin temperature was (0.4±0.9) °C (P=0.004) lower than that before cupping; 10 minutes after cupping off, the localized skin temperature was (0.4±1.1) °C (P=0.016) higher than that before cupping while (0.810.9) °C higher than that when cupping off. The skin surface temperature on the control side declined steadily. Conclusion After cupping treatment, the localized skin temperature fell and then rose while that of the control side declined steadily. It might be related to therapeutic effects.