Objective To observe the clinical effect of fire needle combined with Linggui Bafa for post-herpetic neuralgia （PHN）. Methods One hundred and twenty patients were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group with 60 cases each. For observation group, fire needle was applied to prick Zusanli （足三里 ST 36）, Yanglingquan （阳陵泉 GB 34）, Taichong （太冲 LR 3）, Sanyinjiao （三阴交 SP 6） and partial Ashi points around the lesion, and Linggui Bafa was combined to perform acupuncture therapy, once every other day, 10 times as a course of treatment; for the control group, only fire needle was applied. After 2 courses of treatment, the comparison of the value of visual analogue scale （VAS） and the total effective rate for the two groups were carried out. Results The VAS value of the observation group after treatment was obviously lower than that before treatment （2.28±2.08 vs 6.12±1.96） and that of the control group （2.28±2.08 vs 3.62±2.90）, there were significant differences （all P〈0.01）. The total effective rate of the observation group was obviously higher than that of the control group [93.3% （56/60） vs 76.7% （46/60）], the difference between the two groups was statistically significant （P〈0.05）. Conclusion The effect of fire needle combined with Linggui Ba.fa for PHN is obviously superior to that of single fire needle therapy.
