Abstract

APPLICATION OF HIJAMA (CUPPING THERAPY) IN PAIN MANAGEMENT: A REVIEW

M.M.M. Nifras* and M.N.F. Rizniya

ABSTRACT

Hijama (Cupping therapy) is an Unani regimental mode of treatment and an ancient method which was practiced by varies communities for thousands of years. It is practicing in Sri Lanka for more than 50 years. But the research on Hijama is very poor. Therefore this review was designed to give an overview on the concept of Hijama in the aspect of Unani System of Medicine and to analyze the effectiveness of Hijama in musculoskeletal pain with scientific evidences. Definitions and Descriptions on the Concept of Hijama mentioned in the Classical Unani texts and Explanations for Mechanism of pain relieving of Hijama from authentic books were collected, along with Clinical trials or the systematic reviews on effectiveness of Hijama for pain on journal articles from 2000 – 2017 were filtered for this review. This includes all research papers in English language available in internet. There are well established theories for cupping in Unani system of medicine. The mode of pain relieving through the cupping could be compare and explained with modern theories. Even though cupping has been used to relieve number of conditions more research were reported cupping on pain. In this review 51 research studies identified on the effectiveness of wet cupping including 38 clinical trials and 13 systemic reviews. Among the clinical trials 35 are RTCs and 2 case series and one case report. Most of the RTC s concluded with positive effect in reducing musculoskeletal pain with cupping. Among the musculoskeletal conditions most trials on Low back pain (n= 13), and neck pain (n= 10) and for cervical spondylosis (n= 4). The results revealed that there were well defined theories on Hijama in classical text books. Further scientific evidences demonstrate that pain can effectively relieve with cupping therapy in musculoskeletal conditions.

Keywords: Hijama, Unani Medicine, Musculoskeletal pain.