Investigation of the Effects of Acupuncture on Pain Following Inguinal Surgery

Human have always tried to relieve his (her) pain. Pain after surgical operation is one of the problems that surgeons face every day. On the other hand, nowadays, various methods of acupuncture have been investigated for pain relief. Considering few complications of acupuncture and availability of its specialists at the university, we decided to evaluate its therapeutic effect on pain after operation. Patients referred to the urology ward of Imam Reza hospital who required inguinal surgery have been studied. Before surgery, patients were randomly divided into two groups: placebo and true acupuncture. Electroacupuncture was used in this study was. After surgical operation, pain intensity was recorded by an observer blind to the study according to the 10-scale VAS standard. Ninety subjects were investigated in this study. Our findings showed that pain intensity was significantly higher in placebo group (p<0.05). It was observed in this study that 56 subjects (62.2%) required opioid after surgery and 34 ones (37.8%) did not require opioid after surgery and mean requirement of opioid in placebo group was significantly higher than the group underwent acupuncture (p<0.05). Acupuncture in patients who underwent inguinal surgery of reduces opioid requirement for pain relief and the intensity of post-operative pain.