All data are summarized as means ± standard deviation or as numbers with proportions. A p < 0.05 was considered to indicate significance. We decided that the therapeutic effect would be a > 30% reduction in the VAS value after treatment. The statistical analysis was conducted using the VAS assessment score after the third treatment as the primary endpoint. We used an independent t-test to evaluate differences in each group between VAS pain scores measured after the third treatment and baseline values. The influence of variance in each group after pre-treatment, primary treatment, secondary treatment, and tertiary treatment were verified through repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). We analyzed the differences in the EQ-5D in each group using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Age was considered a covariate. Any differences between the groups for the use of painkillers were analyzed by Fisher's exact test. If there was any difference in the use of pain killers between groups, the influence of pain killer use was closely checked by ANCOVA. A per-protocol (PP) analysis was used in our clinical trial to assess efficacy and safety.