The Effect of Acupuncture on Pain Score after Open Kidney Surgery

Abstract The pain after nephrectomy, just as any other surgery, is one of the problems that the surgeons confront. Given that acupuncture is a therapeutical method with thousand of years of history, and has been effective for pain relief, we decided to evaluate the relieving effect of this therapeutical method on the pain experienced after nephrectomy. This was a clinical trial study that was performed on candiadate patients for nephrectomy. After matching for sex and age, the patients were devided into two groups of acupuncture and sham. In acupuncture group 4 points were stimulated for 30 minutes and in sham group other points were ineffectively stimulated for 30 minutes. Then the pain experienced in the first 6 hours after the surgery was registered by a blind observer upon acupuncture based on VAS. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and T-test. Our results showed that in acupuncture group pain severity was significatly lower than sham group (P value <0.05) and also in true acupuncture group there were 6 patients who required the opioids compared to 12 patients in sham group. Mean opiate demand in sham group was significantly more than acupunture group (P value < 0.05). acupuncture in patients undergoing nephrectomy, can reduce pain severity and demand for the opioids.