Table 1.
Characteristics of included studies.
| Author (year, location) | Subject age (years) | Number of participants (Acua/Shamb/Conc1/Con2) | Surgery | Type of design | Type of intervention (duration, side, and type of stimulation) | Treated acupoints | Type of control group | Outcome measure reported (Pvalue) | Adverse events reported (n) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wang et al. (2001, USA) [19] | 19–66 | 91 (31/32/27) | Elective ambulatory surgery (orthopedic, gynecologic, genitourinary, otolaryngologic, plastic, general ophthalmologic) | RCTd | Auricular acupressure needle (30 min, nondominant hand side) | Relaxation Tranquilizer Mmaster cerebral |
(1) Traditional Chinese medicine group (2) Sham acupuncture |
STAIe (.01) | NRf |
|
| |||||||||
| Wang et al. (2007, USA) [20] | 18–65 | 56 (29/27) | Elective lithotripsy procedure | RCT | Auricular acupressure needle (dominant, 30 min) Bilateral body acupuncture with 2 Hz, 25 V electrical stimulation |
Relaxation valium, master cerebral, kLI4, lLV3 |
(1) Sham auricular acupressure, no electrical stimulation, superficial insertion in the same locations | STAI (.029) | PONVg-acu (4%) con (15%) P = .412 |
|
| |||||||||
| Wang et al. (2008, USA) [18] | 8–17 | 52 (26/26) | General anesthesia for GI endoscopy (upper endoscopy and colonoscopy) | RCT | Acupressure beads (30 min) | Yin Tang | (1) Sham acupressure | STAIC (.012) | PONV-acu (5) con (8) |
|
| |||||||||
| Paraskeva et al. (2004, Greece) [15] | NR | 49 (25/24) | Minor or moderate surgery | RCT | Acupuncture (15 min) | Yin Tang | (1) Sham acupuncture | VSSh (NS) | NR |
|
| |||||||||
| Gioia et al. (2006, Italy) [21] | 71.3 (mean age) | 75 (25/25/25) | Cataract surgery under topical anesthesia | RCT | Body acupuncture (20 min, dominant) Auricular (manually rotated De Qi) acupuncture |
LI4, LV3 mPC6, nHT7 oTE5 Shenmen |
(1) Nontreatment (2) Sham acupuncture |
VASi (.037) | NR |
|
| |||||||||
| Cabrini et al. (2006, Italy) [22] | 18+ | 48 (16/16/16) | Elective diagnostic fiberoptic bronchoscopy | RCT | Bilateral body acupuncture and auricular (20 min, manually rotated De Qi) acupuncture | pLU7, PC6 LI4, HT7 Shenmen | (1) Nontreatment (2) Sham acupuncture |
VAS (.002) | None |
|
| |||||||||
| Karst et al. (2007, German) [10] | 18–65 | 67 (19/19/19/10) | Dental extractions | RCT | Acupuncture (nondominant, 25 min) | Relaxation Tranquilizer Master cerebral |
(1) Placebo auricular acupuncture (2) Intranasal midazolam (3) Nontreatment |
STAI (<.001) VAS (.012) |
Nasal burning (7) None in the other groups |
|
| |||||||||
| Mora et al. (2007, German) [23] | 65–90 | 100 (50/50) | Transported by ambulance before receiving ESWL | RCT | Bilateral auricular acupressure (NR, 1 mm plastic ball) | Relaxation | (1) Sham acupressure | VAS (.001) | NR |
|
| |||||||||
| Michalek-Sauberer et al. (2012, Austria) [24] | 18+ | 182 (61/60/61) | Dental treatment | RCT | Auricular acupuncture (20 min, dominant) | Relaxation Tranquilizer Master cerebral |
(1) Sham acupuncture (2) Nontreatment |
STAI (.008) | Acupuncture (14), Sham (12) |
|
| |||||||||
| Acar et al. (2013, Turkey) [14] | 18–65 | 52 (26/26) | General/regional anesthesia | RCT | Auricular acupuncture (20 min, ear-press needle) | Yin Tang | (1) Sham acupressure | STAI (<.05) | NR |
|
| |||||||||
| Kober et al. (2003, Austria) [25] | 23–89 | 36 (17/19) | Transported by ambulance for gastrointestinal illness | RCT | Bilateral auricular acupressure (NR) | Relaxation | (1) Sham acupressure | VAS (.002) | NR |
|
| |||||||||
| Agarwal et al. (2005, India) [8] | 18–50 | 76 (36/36) | Elective surgical procedure | RCT | Acupressure (10 min, 20–25 cyc/min manually rotated) | Yin Tang | (1) Sham acupressure | VSS (<.001) | NR |
|
| |||||||||
| Borimnejad et al. (2012, China) [16] | 9–12 | 80 (40/40) | Elective surgery | RCT | Acupressure (30 min, 1.3 psi acupressure bead) | Yin Tang | (1) Sham acupressure | STAIC (NSj) | NR |
|
| |||||||||
| Valiee et al. (2012, Iran) [17] | 44.04 ± 11.25 (mean age) | 70 (35/35) | Abdominal surgery (cholecystectomy, hysterectomy, herniorrhaphy, laparoscopy) | RCT | Acupressure (10 min, nondominant, 20–25 cyc/min, acupressure bead) Auricular acupressure |
Shenmen Yin Tang |
(1) Sham acupressure | VAS (<.001) | NR |
aAcu: acupuncture; bSham: sham acupuncture; cCon: control group; dRCT: randomized controlled trials; eSTAI: the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; fNR: not reported; gPONV: postoperative nausea and vomiting; hVSS: verbal-scale score; iVAS: visual analogue scale; jNS: not significant; kLI: large intestine; lLV: liver; mPC: pericardium; nHT: heart; oTE: triple energizer; pLU: lung.