Acupuncture analgesia is greater than morphine in patients with liver cancer

Acupuncture exerts prolonged pain relief compared to morphine in liver cancer patients, according to a study published in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine.

Liver cancer patients with transcathetel arterial chemoembolization experience unbearable pain and are often treated with analgesic drug morphine that has many adverse effects.

Scientists in China conducted a clinical trial to evaluate analgesic effect of acupuncture in comparison with morphine. Sixty liver cancer patients with transcathetel arterial chemoembolization were divided into two groups. One group was given wrist-ankle acupuncture treatment. Another group was treated with morphine. Pain rating was measured by using Visual Analogue Scale prior to and following treatment. It was found that both acupuncture and morphine showed significant and indistinguishable analgesic effects 1, 2 and 4 hour after treatment respectively. However acupuncture induced a greater pain relief than morphine 6 hour following analgesic intervention. Incident rates of abdominal distension were lower in acupuncture-treated group than morphine-treated group.

The study showed that acupuncture is a safe and effective analgesic therapy in cancer-related pain.

Reference:

Zeng K et al., Wrist-ankle acupuncture for pain after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in patients with liver cancer: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Chin Med. 2014;42(2):289-302.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24707863