Acupuncture exerted a complete symptomatic relief in a
patient suffering from recurrent postoperative adhesive intestinal obstruction
(PAIO). A case report was published in the journal of Acupuncture in Medicine.
Adhesive intestinal obstruction is caused by a variety of
pathologic processes. The most common cause of adhesive intestinal obstruction
is abdomino-pelvic surgery followed by malignancy, Crohn disease, and hernias.
Main signs and symptoms associated with adhesive intestinal obstruction include
abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation, and diarrhea. Treatments for the
condition include gastric decompression, bowel rest and anti-inflammatory
agents. However those treatments are not always effective. Surgical
adhesiolysis is invasive and may cause new adhesion development, leading to recurrent
episode of adhesive intestinal obstruction.
Recently Dr. CC Tseng in Taiwan, China used acupuncture
to treat a patient with recurrent postoperative adhesive intestinal
obstruction. A 49-year-old woman patient had an open appendicectomy for acute appendicitis
in 1995. Then she developed intermittent abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation
after operation and required several treatments in hospital. She had two
surgical adhesiolysises performed in 1999 and in 2005 separately due to the
recurrent and severe adhesive intestinal obstruction. Since then she continued
to experience abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation and these affected her
sleep and overall quality of life. The patient sought acupuncture as
alternative treatment and was given acupuncture treatment at acupoints ST36 and
ST25 for 20 min, three times a week for total 4 weeks. The pain intensity was
measured with the Visual Analogue scale after each treatment. After the first
treatment session, patient felt markedly reduction in abdominal pain. After the
3rd treatment her nausea stopped and sleep was back to normal. After
4-week treatment the patient felt free of symptoms and was able to live a
normal life. In an 8-year follow-up after the last acupuncture treatment in
2006 the patient said the symptoms have nerve reoccurred.
Reference
CC Tseng & A
Tseng, Effect of acupuncture on postoperative adhesive intestinal obstruction. Acupunct
Med2015;0:1–2. doi:10.1136/acupmed-2015-010843. http://aim.bmj.com/content/early/2015/06/01/acupmed-2015-010843.extract
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