Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting after general anesthesia: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Objective: We performed this meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) after general anesthesia.

Methods: We searched PubMed, EMbase, Ovid, Web of Science for relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about TEAS for the prevention of PONV, published through July 31, 2019. The primary outcome was the incidence of PONV, postoperative nausea (PON) and postoperative vomiting (POV) recorded within 24 h after surgery. Secondary outcomes included the numbers of patients needing antiemetic rescue and the incidence of postoperative adverse effects referred to general anesthesia. Data were pooled and analyzed by RevMan 5.3 software.

Results: Fourteen RCTs (1653 participants) were included in this meta-analysis. The current results suggested that application of TEAS showed obvious superiority in lower incidence of PONV (relative risk [RR] 0.54, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.42 to 0.68, P < 0.0001), PON (RR, 0.59, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.71, P < 0.0001), POV (RR 0.46; 95% CI, 0.33 to 0.65, P < 0.0001), lower numbers of patients needing antiemetic rescue (RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.78, P = 0.0005), lower incidence of dizziness (RR 0.43, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.60, P < 0.0001) and pruritus (RR 0.43, 95% CI 0.31 to 0.58, P = 0.02), compared with controlled intervention.

Conclusions: TEAS is a reasonable modality to incorporate into a multimodal management approach for the prevention of PONV, PON, POV and associated with lower numbers needing antiemetic rescue, lower incidence of adverse effects after general anesthesia.