Acupuncture Reduces Pain and Opioid Use in Patients With Total Knee Replacement Surgery

Patients who use acupuncture during total knee replacement surgery report less pain and need significantly fewer opioids to manage their discomfort, according to a study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2021 annual meeting. study showed that 65% of patients who received acupuncture during surgery achieved a postoperative experience with low dose or no opioids, compared to 9% of patients outside the study.

“Total knee replacements are one of the most common surgical procedures in the United States and are often very painful. Study author and Assistant Anesthesiologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery and Assistant Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, both located in New York City. “Acupuncture is extremely safe and can help reduce pain with few unwanted side effects, but it has not been well studied in surgical anesthesia.”

The study included 41 patients undergoing total knee replacement surgery at the special surgery hospital. All patients received the institution’s standard multimodal opioid-sparing analgesic protocol, with the addition of electroacupuncture, a modified form of traditional acupuncture that applies a small electric current to thin needles that are inserted into known acupuncture points on the body. Acupuncture was administered during surgery by Dr. Cheng, who is board certified in medical acupuncture, at eight specific points in the ear to relieve targeted pain in the knee.

With the addition of acupuncture, the majority of patients had a significant reduction in postoperative opioid use, compared to historical controls. Sixty-five percent of patients maintained a low-dose opioid regimen of 15 oxycodone tablets or less (57.5%) or remained completely opioid-free (7.5%) since induction of anesthesia for up to 30 days after surgery. Historically, only 9% of patients outside the study maintained a low-dose or no-opioid regimen after surgery. All of the patients studied stopped using opioids 30 days after surgery.

“Our study shows that if a qualified medical acupuncturist is available to perform acupuncture in the operating room, it can help patients recover from postoperative pain,” Dr. Cheng said. “Most studies fail to incorporate non-traditional techniques, such as acupuncture, to help reduce reliance on opioid drugs for postoperative pain control.”

In the context of the opioid epidemic, achieving perioperative low-dose opioid use is essential to reduce the risk of long-term opioid use in patients. With acupuncture commonly used outside the hospital as an effective therapy for pain management and treatment of a range of health issues and symptoms, it’s time to consider its benefits inside the hospital. hospital as well, Dr Cheng said. “More research is needed to better define the effects of acupuncture and to encourage its use in all aspects of disease treatment.”

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Provided by the American Society of Anesthesiologists