Electroacupuncture is able to significantly reduce pain in
patients undergoing bone marrow aspiration and biopsy and decrease some of the
complications of pain according to a report published in journal Advanced
Biomedical Research.
Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy plays an important role in
the evaluating blood disorders, diagnosing and staging of malignancies and
defining various infectious diseases. It is a painful procedure. In spite of
using local anaesthesia and medication, pain relief in bone marrow examination
is often unsatisfactory and the procedure has many adverse effects such as
hypertention, tachycardia, arrhythmias and increased risk of stroke etc.
Researchers in Iran conducted a randomized, double-blinded
study to evaluate pain relief effect of acupuncture in patients undergoing bone marrow
examination. Fifty patients were divided into two groups; one group was treated
with electroacupuncture at acupoint LI4 and LI11 bilaterally plus local anaesthesia,
while group two was received placebo acupuncture plus local anaesthesia treatment.
Acupuncture was given 15 mins before starting bone marrow examination procedure
for duration of 25 mins. Visual Analogue Scale was used to measure the pain
scores induced by bone marrow examination procedure. It was found that pain scores
were significantly reduced in acupuncture group compared to placebo group. The rise
of systolic blood pressure and pulse rate were lower in acupuncture group
compared to placebo group.
Authors suggest that acupuncture can be used as an
adjunctive treatment in bone marrow examination procedure.
Reference:
Shokrani O et al., Electrical stimulation of acupuncture points for analgesia during bone marrow
aspiration and biopsy: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Adv
Biomed Res. 2014 May 28;3:125. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24949296
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