scholarly journals Transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation combined with electroacupuncture for rapid recovery of patients after laparotomy for gastrointestinal surgery: a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. e053309
Author(s):  
Hao Li ◽  
Qian Wen ◽  
Lingyun Lu ◽  
Hangqi Hu ◽  
Ying He ◽  
...  

IntroductionAbdominal surgery is associated with common complications, including decreased or poor appetite, abdominal distension, abdominal pain caused by decreased or absent gastrointestinal motility, anal arrest with flatus and defecation, and nausea and vomiting resulting from the use of anaesthetics and opioid analgesics. These complications seriously affect postoperative recovery, prolong hospital stay and aggravate patient burden. This study aims to investigate for the first time the efficacy of transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) combined with electroacupuncture (EA) therapy for rapid recovery after laparotomy for gastrointestinal surgery. There have been no clinical studies of this combination therapy.Methods and analysisThis will be a prospective, single-centre, three-arm, randomised controlled trial. A total of 480 patients undergoing abdominal surgery will be stratified according to surgery type (ie, gastric or colorectal procedure) and randomised into three groups; namely, the EA, TEAS +EA and control groups. The control group will receive enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS)-standardised perioperative management, including preoperative education, optimising the anaesthesia scheme, avoiding intraoperative hypothermia, restrictive fluid infusion and reducing surgical trauma. The EA group will receive EA stimulation at LI4, PC6, ST36, ST37 and ST39 based on the ERAS-standardised perioperative management. Moreover, the TEAS +EA group will receive ERAS-standardised perioperative management; EA stimulation at the LI4, PC6, ST36, ST37 and ST39; and TEAS stimulation at ST21 and SP15. The primary outcome will be the GI-2 (composite outcome of time to first defaecation and time to tolerance of a solid diet). Secondary outcomes will include the time of first passage of flatus, time to first defaecation, time to tolerance of a solid diet, time to first ambulation, hospital duration from operation to discharge, pain and nausea vomiting scores on the Visual Analogue Scale, medication use, incidence of postoperative complications and evaluation of treatment modality acceptability. All statistical analyses will be performed based on the intention-to-treat principle.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval has been granted by the Ethics Committee on Biomedical Research, West China Hospital of Sichuan University (approval number: 2021; number 52). The results are expected to be published in peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration numberChiCTR2100045646.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy L Marlow ◽  
Angeline HY Lee ◽  
Emma Hedley ◽  
Michael P Grocott ◽  
Michael C Steiner ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundPatients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at increased risk of complications and death following surgery. Pulmonary complications are particularly prominent. Pulmonary rehabilitation is a course of physical exercise and education that helps people with COPD manage their condition. Although proven to improve health outcomes in patients with stable COPD, it has never been formally tested as a pre-surgical intervention in patients scheduled for non-cardiothoracic surgery. If a beneficial effect were to be demonstrated, pulmonary rehabilitation for pre-surgical patients with COPD might be rapidly implemented across the National Health Service, as pulmonary rehabilitation courses are already well established across much of the United Kingdom (UK).MethodsWe performed a feasibility study to test study procedures and barriers to identification and recruitment to a randomised controlled trial testing whether pulmonary rehabilitation, delivered before major abdominal surgery in a population of people with COPD, would reduce the incidence of post-operative pulmonary complications. This study was run in two UK centres (Oxford and Newcastle upon Tyne).ResultsWe determined that a full randomised controlled trial would not be feasible, due to failure to identify and recruit participants. We identified an unmet need to identify more effectively patients with COPD earlier in the surgical pathway. Service evaluations suggested that barriers to identification and recruitment would likely be the same across other UK hospitals.ConclusionsAlthough pulmonary rehabilitation is a potentially beneficial intervention to prevent post-operative pulmonary complications, a randomised controlled trial is unlikely to recruit sufficient participants to answer our study question conclusively at the present time, when spirometry is not automatically conducted in all patients planned for surgery. As pulmonary rehabilitation is a recommended treatment for all people with COPD, alternative study methods combined with earlier identification of candidate patients in the surgical pathway should be considered.Trial registrationISRCTN 29696295, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN29696295, registered 31st August 2017


Author(s):  
Prashant Sachan ◽  
Prem Raj Singh ◽  
Sateesh Verma ◽  
Brij Bihari Kushwaha

Introduction: Pain control is an important factor for postoperative recovery. Many drugs have been studied for effectiveness of postoperative analgesia. Fentanyl is a conventional drug and dexmedetomidine is one of the emerging drugs used for analgesia and postoperative pain control. Aim: To compare the effect of fentanyl and dexmedetomidine on pain control and haemodynamic stability. Materials and Methods: A randomised controlled trial was conducted on 60 patients (30 each group) undergoing for abdominal surgery, between January 2019 to January 2020. Group A received fentanyl loading dose 2 μg/kg I.V. followed by 0.5 μg/kg/hr infusion and group B received dexmedetomidine loading 1 μg/kg over 10 minutes followed by maintenance 0.5 μg/kg/hr infusion. Infusion was continued up to four hours during surgery and till eight hours of postoperative in both groups. Haemodynamic parameters {Heart Rate (HR), Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP)} were recorded after start of study drug infusion, after intubation, then every 15 minutes till 1 hour, then every 30 minutes till end of surgery and after extubation. In postoperative period, HR and MAP were recorded at interval of one hour till eight hours after extubation and postoperative analgesia was assessed by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) at interval of one hour till eight hours. Present study used descriptive statistical analysis for data analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare data between two groups. Chi-square test was used to find the significance of difference on categorical scale between two groups. Results: This study showed that group-B had significantly less VAS score most of time in recovery period as compared to group-A (1.97±0.18 vs 2.10±0.31 at eight hours postoperative). HR, MAP was found significantly less all the time during surgery and most of the time postoperatively in group-B (p-value <0.05). Conclusion: Intravenous infusion of dexmedetomidine can be better for controlling postoperative pain and perioperative haemodynamic stability as compared to infusion of fentanyl in patients undergoing abdominal surgeries.


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