BACKGROUND: Auricular acupuncture is a promising method for postoperative @entity158 relief. However, there is no evidence for its use after ambulatory surgery. Our aim was to test whether auricular acupuncture is better than invasive needle control for @entity1337 after ambulatory knee surgery. METHODS: One hundred and twenty @entity1 undergoing ambulatory arthroscopic knee surgery under standardized general anesthesia were randomly assigned to receive auricular acupuncture or a control procedure. Fixed indwelling acupuncture needles were inserted before surgery and retained in situ until the following morning. Postoperative rescue analgesia was directed to achieve @entity158 intensity less than 40 mm on a 100-mm visual analogue scale. The primary outcome measure was the postoperative requirement for @entity5018 between surgery and examination the following morning. RESULTS: Intention-to-treat analysis showed that @entity1 from the control group (n = 59) required more @entity5018 than @entity1 from the auricular acupuncture group (n = 61): median (interquartile range) 600 (200-800) v. 200 (0-600) mg (p = 0.012). @entity158 intensity on a visual analogue scale was similar in both groups at all time points registered. The majority of @entity1 in both groups believed that they had received true acupuncture and wanted to repeat it in future. INTERPRETATION: Auricular acupuncture reduced the requirement for @entity5018 after ambulatory knee surgery relative to an invasive needle control procedure.

Auricular acupuncture for XXXX relief after ambulatory knee surgery: a randomized trial.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity5018 :: ('MESH:D007052', 'Chemical') :: ['ibuprofen'] @entity1337 :: ('MESH:D000699', 'Disease') :: ['complementary analgesia'] @entity158 :: ('MESH:D010146', 'Disease') :: ['Pain', 'pain']
@entity158 :: (MESH:D010146,Disease) :: ['pain']
