Acupoint stimulation to improve analgesia quality for lumbar spine surgical patients

Lumbar spine surgery has a high incidence of postoperative pain, but this pain is treatable through many methods, including patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). Acupoint stimulation could be considered an adjunct to PCA, improving the effectiveness of analgesia for patients recovering from lumbar spine surgery. The current study aimed to examine the effect of acupoint stimulation with PCA on improving analgesia quality after lumbar spine surgery. A single-blinded, sham-controlled design was used for the experimental, not control, groups. Data collection for the control group was completed first, followed by data collection for the other 2 groups. Participants were randomly assigned to the acupoint stimulation (AS) (n = 45) or sham group (n = 45). All participants received structural PCA multimedia information before lumbar surgery. The AS group received auricular acupressure combined with transcutaneuos electric acupoint stimulation (TEAS) at the true acupoint; the sham group received acupoint stimulation in the same manner but at a sham acupoint and without embedding seeds; and the control group received no acupoint stimulations. The analgesia quality, analgesic consumption, and postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) were used as measure of effects for the interventions. Significant differences were found between the AS and control groups in pain intensity but not in the belief and satisfaction subscales of analgesia quality. Also found a significant difference among the 3 groups in analgesic consumption and the severity of PONV in the first 72 hours after surgery. The current study shows that the combination of auricular acupressure and TEAS reduced pain intensity, morphine consumption, and PONV severity. Acupoint stimulation could be considered a multimodal analgesia method and an adjunct to PCA for lumbar spine surgery patients.