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Acupuncture therapy for infants: a preliminary report on reasons for consultation, feasibility, and tolerability
Katherine R Gentry1, Kathleen L McGinn, Anjana Kundu
1Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. katherine.gentry@seattlechildrens.org
Insights
Acupuncture is safe and effective for hospitalized infants, reducing medication needs and improving outcomes for agitation and feeding issues. Further research is recommended to establish its role in pediatric care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Medicine
- Integrative Health
- Acupuncture Research
Background:
- Hospitalized infants often require sedatives and analgesics for medical care.
- Concerns exist regarding the neurotoxic effects of these medications in infants.
- Acupuncture offers a potential alternative, but data in infants is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the feasibility and safety of acupuncture in hospitalized infants.
- To evaluate potential therapeutic effects of acupuncture in this population.
- To gather data for designing future randomized controlled trials.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective chart review of infants receiving acupuncture between 2008 and 2010.
- Data collected included demographics, diagnoses, acupuncture details, and adverse events.
- Analysis focused on medication use, ventilation status, and feeding outcomes.
Main Results:
- Acupuncture was administered to 10 infants, primarily for agitation and feeding difficulties.
- Significant reductions in sedative/analgesic use were observed in infants with agitation.
- Successful weaning from mechanical ventilation and improved oral intake were noted in some cases.
- Acupuncture was well-tolerated with no observed complications.
Conclusions:
- Acupuncture appears safe, well-tolerated, and therapeutically beneficial in a small cohort of hospitalized infants.
- Findings support the need for further investigation into acupuncture's role in infant care.
- More studies are warranted to confirm these preliminary results and guide clinical practice.
Objectives/Aims:
The aim of this retrospective review was to determine the feasibility, safety, and potential therapeutic effects of acupuncture in an inpatient infant population and to obtain data that would support the design of a randomized, controlled trial of acupuncture in infants.
Background:
Hospitalized infants are often exposed to sedative and analgesic medications to facilitate intensive and invasive medical care. With increasing concern about the potential neurotoxic effects of common analgesic and sedative medications, minimizing an infant's exposure to such agents is desirable. Acupuncture can be therapeutic in adults and children, but data in infants are lacking.
Methods/Materials:
We performed a retrospective chart review of infants who received acupuncture during hospitalizations between 2008 and 2010. Demographic data, diagnoses, reason for acupuncture consult, ventilator settings, sedative/analgesic medication regimens, details of acupuncture therapy, and adverse effects were among data collected.
Results:
Ten infants were identified in this review, seven of whom had agitation issues, two of whom had feeding difficulties, and one had both symptoms. Six of the eight infants with agitation had a decrease in the use of sedative and analgesic medications over the acupuncture therapy period, and four of five initially requiring mechanical ventilation were successfully weaned. One of the three infants with oral aversion transitioned rapidly to oral intake. Acupuncture therapy was well tolerated, and there were no complications observed.
Conclusions:
In this small group of hospitalized infants, acupuncture was found to be safe, well tolerated, and therapeutic. More studies are warranted to define the role of acupuncture in this population.