Auricular acupuncture reduces pain after surgery, but does it matter?
This is the first study of this form of acupuncture in patients having surgery in an outpatient setting.
- 120 patients had arthroscopic knee surgery under standardized general anesthesia.
- They were randomly assigned to receive auricular acupuncture or a control procedure.
- Acupuncture needles were inserted before surgery and retained in place until the following morning.
And the results
- Patients who received auricular acupuncture required significantly less ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) for pain relief compared to patients who got the invasive needle control procedure.
- The median amount of ibuprofen required in the acupuncture group was 200 mg — half of a 400 mg tablet of Motrin.
- The other group required 600 mg of ibuprofen after surgery.
The bottom line?
Sometimes there’s a difference between what’s statistically significant and what’s important to the patient.
Whether the difference in ibuprofen use reported in this study would be really important to a patient is debatable. Maybe more painful operations should be studied.
1/19/07 19:22 JR
