The clinical efficacy of inferior hypogastric plexus block versus acupuncture for management of idiopathic chronic pelvic pain was evaluated in the present study. The results suggested that inferior hypogastric plexus block might provide a better effect compared to acupuncture in a short period of time.
Comments:
1. The sample size in each group is not close to each other. How to choose the sample size? Is a pilot study performed to choose the appropriate sample size?
2. The procedure of the study is not clear enough. A flow diagram is suggested.
3. The description for electroacupuncture is not clear. How to choose the acupuncture points? What is the depth? What is the meaning of low intensity and high frequency stimulation? How about the effect on management of chronic pelvic pain in other setting?
4. The quality of English is also suggested to be improved.
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[REVIEWER]:
In this manuscript the authors compare the clinical efficacy of inferior hypogastric plexus block versus acupuncture for management of idiopathic chronic pelvic pain They found that inferior hypogastric blockade was superiority acupuncture for the management of chronic pelvic pain in a short period.
Reviewer comments:
1. Please provide the type of acupuncture electrical stimulation machine
and values of intensity and frequency in this study.
2. Please provide the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval.
3. Are the patients of acupuncture group treated by one doctor or others in this study？
4. Please explain why do you choice these body acupuncture points in this study ？
5. The description of inferior hypogastric plexus block method need to be extended
6. Did you obtain the pilot data on Tables with which to perform the power analysis? (What is the sample size necessary to have enough power?)
7. Please increase the exclude criteria in your method (eg. Age, medical disease, drug used etc.)
8. Why the VAS was significant decrease at 12 weeks than at the first hour or 2 weeks after treatment (Table 3)？
9. Numerous errors throughout the manuscript which need to be edited by one familiar with written English and see the journals guidelines to authors for more detailed. (eg: Abstract roup 11� change to roup II�,ix� change to �6�)
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[REVIEWER]:
This article was done in randomized clinical trial.The result supported by the statistical analysis is reasonable, however, acupuncture per se is not strong for pain management as nerve bloacke, which blocked the nerve directly. The article was written in good fashion, however, there was mistakes in reference coding. The references number does not match with the relevant sentences and should be corrected.
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[TECHNICAL COMMENTS]
References are not as per the instructions provided by the journal: List the first six contributors followed by et al, do not include unnecessary bibliographic elements such as month, issue, bracket, follow the punctuation marks carefully, provide correct abbreviations for journal titles, follow the correct order of citing bibliographic elements, do not use italics for the journal title, for references from books all the bibliographic elements should be included.
Please cite the related articles published in CGMJ or Biomed J if possible.
Original Article requires an At a Glance Commentary uploaded with your Article File to address following issues:
1. Scientific background on the subject; and
2. What this study adds to the field.
Please refer to the file links of Additional comments / edits by reviewer / editor in forms of file. These file are available to download from your area
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Include the reviewers’ comments along with the point to point clarifications separately in the comments file using the templage provided here. Please upload this file seperately at the time of submitting the revised manuscript.
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