Potential benefits of acupuncture for enhanced recovery in gynaecological surgery

We aimed to evaluate if acupuncture can improve clinical benefits and patient satisfaction after gynaecological surgery supported by enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programmes. Therefore, we evaluated patient as well as clinical outcome in patient recovery after surgery. We searched MEDLINE, PubMed and EMBASE for articles dealing with post-operative acupuncture and extracted 9 suitable studies. We expected acupuncture to alleviate surgical stress, reduce emetic symptom and accelerate recovery from complications in pre-, intra-, and post-operative phases. Gastrointestinal motility and coldness achieved the full improvement rate of 50%. With regard to post-operative nausea and vomiting, 3 studies showed more than 30% and 1 showed 16% improvement. Sore throat and urinary retention achieved a mild improvement rate of 16% and 12%, respectively. In this study, we demonstrated that acupuncture can enhance recovery in gynaecological surgery without adverse effects and thus should be considered in ERAS.