The Feasibility of Blinding Intraoperative Electro-Auricular Acupuncture Under Neuraxial Anesthesia.

Demand for complementary medicine, in particular, acupuncture, has increased over the past few years but widespread acceptance has been limited, in part, by the lack of high-quality studies, including lack of blinding. Acupuncture studies traditionally have difficulty with blinding as sham acupuncture can have up to a 40%-50% analgesic effect. This study randomized patients between Acupuncture and No Acupuncture (standard of care) without using sham needles.

Clinical outcomes in patients with pulmonary hypertension undergoing total hip arthroplasty.

Background: Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is regarded as a risk factor for perioperative complications in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery.

Questions/purposes: The objective of this retrospective case-control study was to evaluate the adverse outcomes of pulmonary hypertension patients undergoing elective unilateral hip replacements.

Methods: We performed a retrospective case-control study of total hip replacement patients with pulmonary hypertension (cases) and without pulmonary hypertension (control).