Objective To investigate the effects of electroacupuncture therapy on motor function and excitability of cerebral motor cortex in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury. Methods A total of 80 patients with incomplete spinal cord injury were randomly divided into electroacupuncture group and routine training group

with 40 cases in each group. The routine training group was treated with sitting

standing and walking training and routine rehabilitation training

and the electroacupuncture group was given electroacupuncture treatment at Jiaji（ EX-B2） of T8-T10

Dazhui（ GV14

bilateral）

Mingmen（ GV4

bilateral）

Yanglingquan（ GB34

bilateral） and Zusanli（ ST36

bilateral）

and retention of needle for 30 minutes

once a day

5 times a week

for 4 weeks on the basis of the same treatment. Four-week follow-up was completed after treatment finish. Before and after treatment

the ASIA lower extremity exercise score（ LEMS）

modified Ashworth scale（ MAS）

10 m walking speed

spinal cord injury walking index II（ WISCIⅡ） were used to assess motor function

and the resting motion threshold（ RMT） of the tibialis anterior muscle

and motor evoked potential（ MEP）

cortical resting period（ CSP） and maximum composite muscle action potential（ CMAP） were used to assess the excitability of the cerebral cortex motor area

and correlation analysis was performed by Spearman correlation coefficient. Results After treatment and 4 weeks’ follow-up

the LEMS score

10 m walking speed

WISCI Ⅱ index and CSP levels in both groups were significantly increased and RMT

MEP decreased than those before treatment（ P < 0. 05）. MAS score and CMAP level had no significant change（ P > 0. 05）. After treatment and 4 weeks follow-up

the improvement of LEMS score

10 m walking speed

RMT

MEP and CSP improvement in electroacupuncture group was supperior to that of the routine training group（ P <0. 05）. The results of correlation analysis of Spearman showed that there was a negative correlation between LEMS as well as WISCIⅡ index and RMT

MEP

CSP（ P < 0. 05）. Conclusion Electroacupuncture has a certain improvement effect on the motor function of patients with incomplete spinal cord injury and the recovery of excitability in cerebral cortex motor area.