Electrical punctual stimulation (P-STIM) with ear acupuncture following tonsillectomy, a randomised, controlled pilot study

Background

We examined whether P-STIM, administered pre- and postoperatively after tonsillectomies, resulted in a lower consumption of analgesics and an improvement of pain scores compared to sham acupuncture.

Methods

This study was carried out in a randomised, double-blind, controlled fashion. Thirty-three patients were randomised into 2 groups. All patients had P-STIM applied to them beginning 30 min preoperatively. The stimulation was applied over the following 96 h. The P-STIM-Verum group received sub-threshold stimulation. No stimulation was applied in the P-STIM-Placebo group.

Premedication and anaesthesia were applied in a standardised fashion. The efficacy of P-STIM application was evaluated postoperatively using numeric and visual analogue scales at rest and with exertion and by measuring postoperative analgesic consumption.

Results

At almost all the measured time points the median pain score was less in the P-STIM-Verum group than in the P-STIM-Placebo group. The VAS scores at rest and with exertion were also significantly less in the P-STIM-Verum group at certain time points. Analgesic consumption in the P-STIM-Verum group was also less than in the P-STIM-Placebo group; however the difference did not reach statistical significance.

Conclusions

We were able to demonstrate in our study, that P-STIM applied pre- and postoperatively following tonsillectomies, is a simple method that seems to be effective and has few side-effects.