Auricular acupuncture reduces intraoperative fentanyl requirement during hip arthroplasty--a randomized double-blinded study.

We studied whether auricular acupuncture reduces analgesic requirement during total hip arthroplasty. Sixty-four patients were enrolled in this patient/anesthesiologist-blinded study according to inclusion criteria. They were randomly assigned to receive acupuncture with indwelling fixed needles (points lung, shenmen, forehead and hip) or sham procedure (4 non-acupuncture points on the helix).