Acupuncture eases post-op pain for knee replacement patients

ACUPUNCTURE during knee replacement surgery reduces the need for opioids to be prescribed during the recovery process, a US study has shown.

Almost two-thirds of patients who received the therapy during surgery achieved a low-dose or opioid-free postoperative experience, compared to just 9 per cent of those outside the study.

Lead author of the study, Dr Stephanie Cheng, assistant professor of clinical anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medicine, said: “Total knee replacements are one of the most common operative procedures in the United States and often very painful, so there’s a great need to explore nonopioid pain relief techniques for this type of surgery.

“Acupuncture is extremely safe and can help reduce pain with few unwanted side effects, but it has not been well researched as part of surgical anaesthesia.”

The study included 41 patients undergoing primary total knee replacement at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

All patients received a low dose of opioids, with the addition of electroacupuncture – a modified form of traditional acupuncture that applies a small electric current to thin needles that are inserted at known pressure points on the body.

Dr Cheng administered them to eight specific points in the ear to provide targeted pain relief in the knee during surgery. The findings showed that 65 per cent of patients maintained a low-dose opioid regimen of 15 oxycodone pills or less while 7.5 per cent remained completely opioid-free 30 days after surgery.

Dr Cheng, who is board-certified in medical acupuncture, said: “Our study shows that if a trained medical acupuncturist is available to perform acupuncture in the operating room, it can help patients with post-operative pain recovery,

“Most studies fail to incorporate nontraditional techniques, such as acupuncture, to help decrease the dependence on opioid medications for postoperative pain control.

“Additional research is needed to further define acupuncture’s effects and encourage its use in all aspects of disease treatment.”

The findings are due to be presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting in San Diego.

‘Total knee replacements are often very painful so there’s a need to explore pain relief techniques’