Amgad Mohamed Mahmoud Hazzaa
EGYPT
Title: Bee venom therapy in cases of Rheumatoid arthritis with back pain: A randomized controlled trial
Biography
Biography: Amgad Mohamed Mahmoud Hazzaa
Abstract
Background
Bee venom (BV) has been used in the treatment of muscloskeletal and rheumatic problems in the clinical field, the use of honey and other bee products in human treatments traced back thousands of years and healing properties are included in religious texts. Apitherapy is the use of honey bee products for medical purposes, this include bee venom, raw honey, royal jelly, pollen, propolis, and beeswax. Whereas bee venom therapy is the use of live bee stings (or injectable venom solutions with different degrees of dilutions) to treat various diseases such as arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS), lupus, sciatica, low back pain, and tennis elbow. Objectives: To assess the clinical evidence for bee venom therapy (BVT) with or without physiotherapy modalities in cases with rheumatoid arthritis.
Setting:
Dar Elshefaa Medical center for Physiotherapy in Damas, Meet Ghammr, Dakahlia.
Time: 3 months From 3 Jan, 2015 to 5 April, 2015 Participants: Patients with Rheumatoid arthritis and suffer from back pain , a total of 38 patients had been enrolled in the previous study, and 8 of these were excluded from the current study, Thirty patients who had been treated, they were divided randomly into two groups, Group (A) with combined BVA and physiotherapy, group (B) treated by physiotherapy with injection of normal Saline Nacl and considered as a control group.
Intervention:
Physiotherapy program with or without using of bee venom therapy (BVT), Physiotherapy program involved (Infrared, Wax, ultrasound, Tens & Therapeutic exercises), BVT involved injecting purified & graduated diluted BV (1gm-500 ml normal serum saline concentration which was doubled every month at 3 months therapy).
Main Outcome Measures:
Four outcomes assessed at baseline for three months intervention to measure pain and patient satisfaction, lumbar range of motion was measured by Inclinometer and functional disability was measured by oswestry disability scale & Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), Measurements were taken at two intervals pre-treatment and post-treatment. Results: Bee venom therapy (BVT) was associated with clinically significant improvement at 3-month follow-up, the group A whom were treated by traditional therapy with bee venom therapy in the involved muscles showed significantly improvement of pain intensity, functional disability & Lumbar range of motion (P< 0.0001), Also a significant improvement for ESR.
Conclusion: There is a good scientific clinical evidence for bee venom therapy (BVT) more than control group treated by physical therapy only at 3-month therapy in pain, ROM , functional disability and ESR , also the BVT group showed significantly greater satisfaction compared with the control group.
Keywords:
honey bees, apitherapy, bee venom, bee sting, back pain, physiotherapy, and rheumatoid arthritis.