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 anesthesia with volatile anesthetic isoflurane and opioid analgesic fentanyl, whereby isoflurane concentration was kept constant. Demographics, fentanyl requirement, duration of general anesthesia and success of patients' blinding were registered. Patients from the acupuncture group required 21% less fentanyl during surgery than those who received sham procedure. Other outcome measures were similar in both groups. Auricular acupuncture reduced fentanyl requirement compared to sham procedure during hip arthroplasty.