ArticleEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM2016
Electroacupuncture Reduces Postoperative Pain and Analgesic Consumption in Patients Undergoing Thoracic Surgery: A Randomized Study.
Article in Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04595253 (Professor, School of Nursing, China Medical University Hospital, Principal Investigator), which is not on this map. Cited by 19 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Professor, School of Nursing, China Medical University Hospital, Principal Investigator
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pain management after open thoracotomy 2025: procedure-specific postoperative pain management (PROSPECT) recommendations.Anaesthesia · 2026Pooled it
- Efficacy and safety of electrical acupoint stimulation for postoperative nausea and vomiting: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Acupuncture for perioperative care of total hip arthroplasty: A systemic review of controlled trials and meta-analysis.Medicine · 2019Pooled it
- Effect of electroacupuncture on pain after periodontal flap surgery: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of traditional Chinese medicine = Chung i tsa chih ying wen pan · 2025Trial
- Short-term effect of electroacupuncture on rehabilitation after arthroscopic triangular fibrocartilage complex repair: a randomised study.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2021Trial
- Impact of laser acupuncture on gastrointestinal function recovery in patients after acute appendicitis surgery: A retrospective clinical study.World journal of gastrointestinal surgery · 2025Article
- Article
- Effects of warm silver needle acupuncture combined with myofascial trigger point intervention on peripheral neutrophil autophagy and alleviation of chronic pelvic pain in women.American journal of translational research · 2025Article
- Article
- Acupuncture and Postoperative Pain Reduction.Current pain and headache reports · 2022Review
- Herbal medicine for the management of postoperative pain: A protocol for the systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Medicine · 2019Article
- Article
- Electro-acupuncture stimulation prevents remifentanil-induced postoperative hyperalgesia by suppressing spinal microglia in rats.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2018Article
- Pain management of surgical abortion using transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation: An orthogonal prospective study.The journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research · 2018Article
- Transcutaneous electroacupuncture alleviates postoperative ileus after gastrectomy: A randomized clinical trial.World journal of gastrointestinal surgery · 2018Article
- Article
- Intraoperative Electroacupuncture Reduces Postoperative Pain, Analgesic Requirement and Prevents Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting in Gynaecological Surgery: A Randomised Controlled Trial.Anesthesiology and pain medicine · 2016Article
- Effects of Electroacupuncture Treatment on Bone Cancer Pain Model with Morphine Tolerance.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on postoperative pain management in patients undergoing thoracic surgery. A randomized study was conducted. Ninety-two thoracic surgical patients were randomly divided into an EA group and a sham group. Postoperative intravenous analgesia was applied with a half dose of the conventional drug concentration in both groups. In the EA group, EA treatment was administered for three consecutive days after the surgery with 6 sessions of 30 min each. Compared with the sham group, patients in the EA group had a lower visual analogue scale (VAS) score at 2, 24, 48, and 72 hours and consumed less analgesic after surgery. The incidence of opioid-related adverse effects of nausea was lower in the EA group. The time to first flatus and defecation was also shorter in the EA group. Furthermore, the plasma β-endorphin (β-EP) level was higher by radioimmunoassay and the plasma 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) level was lower in the EA group by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay during the first 72 hr after thoracic surgery. Therefore, EA is suitable as an adjunct treatment for postoperative pain management after thoracic surgery.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.