Acupuncture Beats Propofol for Endoscopy Analgesia
Endoscopic ultrasound can be a long,
uncomfortable, and even painful procedure. But electroacupuncture starting 45
minutes before the procedure significantly decreased the need for drugs to
control pain in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study
of 64 patients in Hong Kong.
Dr. Anthony Y. Teoh, who did the
endoscopies, and Dr. Wing Wa Leung, the acupuncturist, showed us how they did
it in an interview at the annual Digestive Disease Week. Both are of the
department of surgery at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The 32 patients in the
electroacupuncture group took a median of only two hits of patient-controlled
analgesia with a mean of 0.22 mg/kg propofol, compared with 10 hits for the 32
patients in the control group with a mean of 0.71 mg/kg propofol. Patients
rated their pain significantly lower and their satisfaction with the procedure
significantly higher in the electroacupuncture group than in the control group,
while it made no difference for the endoscopist, whose satisfaction scores were
similar between groups. Fifteen patients with acupuncture said they’d be
willing to repeat the procedure, compared with eight control patients.
Source of the report is here.
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