{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T06:24:28Z","timestamp":1786947868324,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786924800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Refractory peripheral facial paralysis (RPFP) affects 15%\u201320% of patients with facial palsy, leading to poor recovery and reduced quality of life. Current treatments yield limited efficacy, and objective evidence for acupuncture-based therapies remains scarce.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      We addressed this gap by conducting a propensity score-matched retrospective study in 166 RPFP patients (H-B grade \u2265 III, duration \u2265 3 months). Patients were divided into an observation group (warm acupuncture plus precise meridian sinew needling,\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 83) and a control group (conventional acupuncture,\n                      <jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 83). Outcomes included clinical efficacy, TCM syndrome scores, facial nerve function (H-B grade, Portmann score), facial disability index (FDI), safety, and infrared thermal imaging parameters (bilateral \u0394T, ROI \u0394T, LBP histogram distance).\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The observation group showed significantly higher cure rate (59.04% vs. 43.37%,\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.044) and total effective rate (93.98% vs. 80.72%,\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      = 0.010). After treatment, TCM syndrome scores, H-B grade, bilateral \u0394T (0.26 \u00b1 0.05 vs. 0.32 \u00b1 0.08\u00b0C), ROI \u0394T (0.28 \u00b1 0.07 vs. 0.35 \u00b1 0.08\u00b0C), and LBP distance (0.39 \u00b1 0.09 vs. 0.48 \u00b1 0.10) were all significantly lower in the observation group (all\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001); Portmann score and FDI subscales were significantly higher (all\n                      <jats:italic>P<\/jats:italic>\n                      &amp;lt; 0.001). The observed adverse-event proportions did not differ statistically; this finding does not establish safety equivalence.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>In this propensity score-matched retrospective study, warm acupuncture combined with precise meridian sinew needling was associated with better short-term clinical, functional, and facial thermal-symmetry outcomes than conventional acupuncture. Infrared thermography quantified surface-temperature asymmetry but did not directly measure blood flow. Prospective multicentre studies with longer follow-up are needed to confirm these findings.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2026.1890419","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]],"date-time":"2026-08-17T05:26:00Z","timestamp":1786944360000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Warm acupuncture combined with precise meridian sinew needling for refractory peripheral facial paralysis: a propensity score-matched retrospective study on clinical efficacy and infrared thermal imaging"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Yutong","family":"Jin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine), Hangzhou","place":["Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuxuan","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The First Clinical Medical College of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou","place":["Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lihua","family":"Xuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine), Hangzhou","place":["Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"S1","DOI":"10.1177\/0194599813505967","article-title":"Clinical practice guideline: Bell\u2019s palsy.","volume":"149","author":"Baugh","year":"2013","journal-title":"Otolaryngol Head Neck 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