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Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on acupoints reduces fentanyl requirement for postoperative pain relief after total hip arthroplasty in elderly patients Full Text
Minerva Anestesiologica, 07/25/2012
Clinical Article
Lan F et al. – Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on specific acupoints is an effective and complementary approach to reduce postoperative analgesic requirement in elderly patients after total hip arthroplasty (THA).
Methods- Sixty–eight elderly patients requiring THA surgery were enrolled and randomly allocated to one of two groups.
- Group Acu received true TENS on acupoints (bilateral P6, L14; ST36, GB31 ipsilateral to the surgery site) and Group Sham received sham treatment.
- All patients received patient–controlled analgesia for two days postoperatively.
- Analgesia was assessed by postoperative fentanyl requirement and pain intensity using a visual analogue scale (VAS–10 cm).
- The incidence of analgesia–related side effects, optional medication use and effects of patients’ blinding were recorded.
- Fentanyl consumption in Group Acu was lower than that in Group Sham at 24h (mean±SD; 360±117 vs. 572±132µg; P<0.001) and 48h (712±184 vs. 1022±197µg; P<0.001) after surgery.
- Postoperative pain intensity measured by VAS was similar in both groups.
- The incidence of opioid–related side effects and rescue medication for postoperative analgesia was significantly higher in Group Sham than in Group Acu.
- Differences between the groups regarding the effects of patients’ blinding were not significant.