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).

Detection of ear acupuncture points by measuring the electrical skin resistance in patients before, during and after orthopedic surgery performed under general anesthesia.

The aim was to study the detection of ear acupuncture points (EAP) by measuring the electrical skin resistance under general anesthesia. EAP with lower skin resistance were examined in 25 patients scheduled for elective orthopedic surgery on the day before, during the operative procedure and a few hours after it. EAP, detected in more than 25% of patients were further analyzed using a logistic regression model and compared to those in 15 healthy volunteers.