Objective To investigate the clinical effect of acupuncture combined with western medicine in the treatment of children with abdominal Henoch-Schonlein purpura with spleen-stomach damp-heat syndrome. Methods A total of 60 children with abdominal Henoch-Schonlein purpura with spleen-stomach damp-heat syndrome were randomly divided into treatment group and control group

with 30 patients in each group. The patients in the control group were given Hydroprednisone 2 mg·kg

(-1)

·d(-1)·d

(-1)

and in addition to the treatment in the control group

those in the treatment group were given acupuncture at Tianshu(ST25)

Neiguan(PC6)

Zusanli(ST36)

Zhongwan(CV12)

Qihai(CV6)

and Sanyinjiao(SP6) once a day

with a needle retaining time of 15 minutes. Both groups were treated for 7 days. The scores of abdominal pain

hematochezia

hematemesis

vomiting

poor appetite

abdominal distension

purpura

occult blood in stool

and abdominal ultrasound were determined before and after treatment

and the time to the disappearance of abdominal pain was observed. Clinical outcome was evaluated. Results The treatment group had a significantly higher effective rate than the control group [96.7%(29/30) vs 80.0%(24/30)

P

<

0.05]. Both groups had significant reductions in the scores of abdominal pain

hematochezia

hematemesis

poor appetite

abdominal distension

purpura

occult blood and abdominal ultrasound and the total score after treatment(P

<

0.05)

and compared with the control group after treatment

the treatment group had significantly lower scores of abdominal pain

poor appetite

abdominal distension

and abdominal ultrasound and total score(P

<

0.05). The treatment group had a significantly shorter time to disappea-rance of abdominal pain than the control group(P

<

0.05). Conclusion Acupuncture combined with western medicine has a better clinical effect than western medicine alone in the treatment of abdominal Henoch-Schonlein purpura with spleen-stomach damp-heat syndrome and can significantly improve clinical symptoms and signs and shorten the time to disappearance of abdominal pain.