Acupuncture Cuts Need for Post-Op Painkillers

Related Healthscout Videos Nature’s Remedies Healing Heel Pain with the Topaz Procedure RELIEVING THAT PAIN IN THE NECK Natural Healing For Crohn's Disease More... Related News Articles • Ginkgo Prevented Stroke Damage in Mice • Sweet Treatment for Burns • NSAIDs Might Lower Breast Cancer Risk • Cell Protein Suppresses Pain Better Than Morphine More...

Page:  << Prev | 1 | 2

Acupuncture "is becoming increasingly accepted by both physicians and patients," added Dr. David P. Martin, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He said the technique can be helpful whether it is used to lower the level of morphine or other opioid painkiller, or whether it is used to relieve nausea. Often, he said, "people prefer to have pain to throwing up."

He questioned, however, how widely acupuncture could be used during operations because "acupuncture needles tend to get in the way" in crowded OR conditions.

Another expert said Gan's finding that adjunctive acupuncture can reduce urinary retention by 3.5 times is especially important.

Text Continues Below

---

"The risk reduction is huge," said Dr. Kenneth Levey, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University School of Medicine, New York City. Urinary retention is not only uncomfortable for the patient but the use of a catheter to relieve it increases the risk of infection, he said.

"For optimum pain control with minimum side effects, opioids plus acupuncture are the way to go and hopefully will become more widely accepted," Levey added.

More information

There's more on acupuncture at the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Page:  << Prev | 1 | 2