Acupuncture beats conventional treatment in new study - World Science article

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This is interesting...

http://www.world-science.net/newspg2/040922_acupunctfrm.htm

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At 01:07 PM 9/22/2004, Mercury wrote:

>This is interesting...

>

>http://www.world-science.net/newspg2/040922_acupunctfrm.htm

>

>Acupuncture beats conventional treatment in study

 

Acupuncture beats conventional treatment in study

 

Posted Sept. 22, 2004

Courtesy Duke University Medical Center

and World Science Staff

 

DURHAM, N.C. – In the first such clinical trial of its kind, researchers at

Duke University Medical Center have found that acupuncture is more

effective at reducing nausea and vomiting after major breast surgery than

the leading medication.

 

The researchers also found that patients who underwent the 5,000-year-old

Chinese practice reported decreased postoperative pain and increased

satisfaction with their postoperative recovery. In conducting the trial,

the researchers also demonstrated that the pressure point they stimulated

possesses previously unknown pain-killing properties.

 

Results of the Duke study were published Sept. 22, 2004, in the journal

Anesthesia and Analgesia.

 

Treating postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is an important medical

issue. About 70 percent of women who undergo major breast surgery requiring

general anesthesia suffer from this complication, according to Duke

anesthesiologist Tong Joo (T.J.) Gan, M.D., who led the trial. These

adverse side effects are important factors in determining how soon patients

can return home after surgery.

 

" The patients in our randomized trial who received acupuncture enjoyed a

more comfortable recovery from their surgery than those who received an

antisickness medication, " Gan said. " In the areas of PONV control, pain

relief, and general overall satisfaction, acupuncture appears to be more

effective than the most commonly used medication, with few to no side effects. "

 

In the trial, Gan employed an electro-acupuncture device in which an

electrode – like that used in standard EKG tests – is attached at the

appropriate point. In this case, the point is known as P6 and is located

below the wrist. Instead of actually breaking the skin with the traditional

long slender needles, the electro-acupuncture device delivers a small

electrical pulse through the skin.

 

" Electro-acupuncture enhances or heightens the effects of traditional

acupuncture, " Gan explained. " Also, in the busy and complicated setting of

the operating room, the electro-acupuncture device is much more convenient

to use. "

 

The researchers enrolled 75 women who were to undergo major breast surgery

(breast augmentation, breast reduction or mastectomy) requiring the use of

general anesthesia. They were then randomized into three groups: one which

received acupuncture, one which received the medication ondansetron (trade

name Zofran), and a group that received neither.

 

The surgeries lasted anywhere from two to four hours, and the incidence of

PONV and pain were tracked at 30-minute intervals for the first two hours

after surgery, and then again 24 hours later.

 

Two hours after surgery, 77 percent of the patients receiving acupuncture

experienced no PONV, nor did they require an antiemetic drug to reduce

nausea and vomiting, compared to 64 percent for those who received

ondansetron and 42 percent who received nothing. At 24 hours, the rates

were 73 percent, 52 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

 

" When used for the prevention of PONV, electro-acupuncture stimulation or

ondansetron was more effective than placebo with a greater degree of

patient satisfaction, but the electro-acupuncture appears to be more

effective in controlling nausea, compared to ondansetron, " Gan said.

 

The electro-acupuncture was applied at the 6th point (P6) along the

pericardial meridian, which is located two inches below the bottom of the

palm of the hand and between the two tendons connecting the lower arm with

wrist. According to Chinese healing practices, there are about 360 specific

points along 14 different lines, or meridians, that course throughout the

body just under the skin.

 

" The Chinese believe that our vital energy, known as chi, courses

throughout the body along these meridians, " Gan explained. " While

healthiness is a state where the chi is in balance, unhealthiness arises

from either too much or too little chi, or a blockage in the flow of the

chi. By applying acupuncture to certain well-known points, the Chinese

believe they can bring the chi back into balance. "

 

While pressure on other acupuncture points – LI4 on the hand, SP6 on the

leg and " back-shu " along the spine – are known to have pain-killing

effects, this is the first to show that P6 also has analgesic effects to go

along with its known antiemetic properties, Gan said.

 

While it is not completely known why or how acupuncture – whether

electro-acupuncture or traditional – works, recent research seems to point

its ability to stimulate the release of hormones or the body's own

painkillers, known as endorphins, Gan said.

 

Interestingly, Gan said, low-frequency modulation of the

electro-acupuncture device appears to release one type of endorphin that

produces analgesia of slower onset but longer duration. When higher

frequencies are used, the body appears to produce another type of endorphin

that provides rapid analgesia, but of shorter duration.

 

The scientists will conduct further studies comparing the various

combinations of these frequencies, as well as comparing the combination of

acupuncture with other antiemetic medications.

 

Gan said that women in general are three times more likely to suffer from

PONV after major surgery than men, though the reasons why are not known.