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Acupuncture and Postoperative Pain Reduction

  • Acute Pain Medicine (R Urman, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Pain and Headache Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Acupuncture is an analgesic technique that has long been utilized in Eastern medicine. In recent times, various acupuncture techniques have been used in integrated pain management approaches in Western medicine. It has even been adopted as an analgesic method in surgical patients. Currently, no review exists regarding various acupuncture techniques used in perioperative pain management and data describing the utility of these techniques. This paper synthesizes the latest literature regarding the role of acupuncture in perioperative pain management. The authors sought to describe various acupuncture modalities used to help manage surgical pain and synthesize the current body of literature to help readers make informed judgements on the topic.

Recent Findings

Patients undergoing abdominal, spine/neuro, and gynecologic pelvic surgery generally benefit from acupuncture. Out of the various acupuncture techniques, electroacupuncture, transcutaneous electric acupoint stimulation, and traditional total body acupuncture seem to be most promising as adjuncts to multimodal perioperative analgesia. Benefits include improved analgesia and/or reduced narcotic requirements, decrease in PONV, and shorter time to return of bowel function.

Summary

Acupuncture is a low-risk method that has the potential to enhance perioperative analgesia, decrease opioid requirement, and reduce unwanted side effects of anesthesia, surgery, and opioid administration such as nausea/vomiting. Given the variety of patient populations, various acupuncture techniques, and small patient populations for most current studies; it remains difficult to determine which acupuncture method would most benefit specific patients. Future studies with more robust sample sizes and prospective comparison on acupuncture technique would help better characterize acupuncture’s role in perioperative pain management.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 W. Wisconsin Ave; P347, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Shivani Shah, Lisa Godhardt & Christina Spofford

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  1. Shivani Shah
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  2. Lisa Godhardt
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Correspondence to Christina Spofford.

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Shivani Shah, Lisa Godhardt, and Christina Spofford declare no conflict of interest.

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Shah, S., Godhardt, L. & Spofford, C. Acupuncture and Postoperative Pain Reduction. Curr Pain Headache Rep 26, 453–458 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11916-022-01048-4

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