Acupuncture pain anesthesia

Acupuncture benefits for surgery pain

Picture this: a patient lies on the operating table, prepped for surgery. As the medical team assembles, a practitioner steps forward, armed not with a scalpel, but with slender needles. In this moment, ancient wisdom and modern medicine converge, and the power of acupuncture is unleashed.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina delved into 15 clinical trials, analysing the effects of acupuncture on post-operative pain control. What they found was a revelation: acupuncture, an ancient Chinese practice involving the insertion of fine needles into specific body points, is valuable for reducing pain in surgery patients.

The trials revealed that patients receiving acupuncture before or during various types of surgery experienced significantly less post-operative pain compared to those who did not. Furthermore, these patients required less morphine or other opioid pain medication, resulting in reduced side effects such as nausea and vomiting.

In fact, acupuncture patients experienced 1.5 times lower rates of nausea, 1.6 times fewer reports of dizziness, and 3.5 times fewer cases of urinary retention compared to their non-acupuncture counterparts. These findings bolster the growing body of evidence supporting the use of acupuncture to improve the surgical experience for patients.

Despite these promising results, the use of acupuncture in Western medicine remains limited. Dr. Tong-Joo Gan, Vice Chairman of Duke’s Anesthesiology Department, believes that a lack of familiarity and training in acupuncture among Western doctors contributes to its underutilisation. He calls for surgeons and anesthesiologists to have an open mind and consider the potential benefits of this ancient practice.

Additionally, you may read the story covering this study on Reuters.

A study: acupuncture improves cancer patients wellbeing

A new Perth study has found acupuncture and massage significantly improve the well-being of cancer patients.

More than 500 patients in the study began using complementary treatments in addition to traditional medicine like chemotherapy and morphine over a 17-month period.

The researchers at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital found the therapies relieved physical symptoms such as nausea and pain while improving the patient’s overall quality of life.

“The treatments worked extremely well, but more research needs to be done to start to ask how can we get the best out of these two worlds which in the past really have been mutually exclusive in our society”, says the director of the Cancer Support Centre, David Joske.

He says he hopes the study gives greater credibility to the benefits of complementary medicine.

source: www.abc.net.au

Melbourne’s Northern Hospital embraces acupuncture

It’s time to face a new emergency medicine in Australia. In a radical departure from accepted hospital practice across the nation, the Emergency Department at the Northern Hospital in Melbourne is incorporating ancient techniques into its new approach to care.

When patients arrive at casualty, they will now be treated with acupuncture to reduce symptoms such as pain and nausea. Final year acupuncture students at RMIT University will deliver the treatment, which will be used in conjunction with standard medical practice. Students before working at the Melborne emergency department went to train in Chinese TCM hospitals.

Doctors will seek to try to find other ways of treating patients at the emergency department. The primary goal is to find out when acupuncture is helpful and when is better not to use it. From battlefield acupuncture used in the military we know that it works well in extreme pain situations.  So it makes sense to offer this therapy when in pain or experiencing nausea instead of giving drugs.

Other hospitals will be following the lead and if the trial is successful will be integrating into emergency departments around the country.

Read the article here