Auricular Acupuncture Reduces Intraoperative Fentanyl Requirement During Hip Arthroplasty - A Randomized Double-Blinded Study

We studied whether auricular acupuncture reduces analgesic requirement during total hip arthroplasty. Sixty-four patients were enrolled in this patient/anesthesiologist-blinded study according to inclusion criteria. They were randomly assigned to receive acupuncture with indwelling fixed needles (points lung, shenmen, forehead and hip) or sham procedure (4 non-acupuncture points on the helix). Surgery was performed under standardized general …