Electroacupuncture on PC6 Prevents Opioid-lnduced Nausea and Vomiting after Laparoscopic Surgery

Objective： To investigate the treatment time dependence of electroacupuncture （EA） on Neiguan （PC6） for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting （PONV）. Methods： One hundred and seventy-eight patients, who had received intravenous patient-controlled analgesia （PCA） with Fentanyl, were assigned randomly to three groups using random numbers： a pre-operative EA group （PrEA）, a post-operative EA group （PoEA）, and a non-acupuncture control group （NC）. An anesthetist evaluated the incidence and severity of nausea and vomiting for 48 h after surgery blindly. The main outcomes were severity and freguency of PONV, which were measured with a self-reported questionnaire and a confirmation from the anesthetist. The data were analyzed with ANOVA and Z-test. Results： The incidence of nausea and vomiting was significantly lower in the PrEA group than the NC group during 48 h after surgery （P〈0.01, P〈0.05）. The incidence of vomiting was also significantly lower in the PrEA group than the PoEA group （P〈0.05）. The PoEA subjects evidenced no significant differences compared with the NC subjects in terms of the incidence of nausea and vomiting （P〈0.05）. The severity of nausea was significantly lower in the PrEA group than in the NC and PoEA groups （P〈0.05）. Conclusions： EA on PC6 is effective in the prevention of PONV, and pre-operative acupuncture is more effective than post-operative acupuncture.