Prevention of propofol injection-related pain using pretreatment transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation

Abstract

Background/aim: This study aimed to study the effect of pretreatment transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) in preventing propofol injection-related pain.Materials and methods: A total of 360 patients who were to undergo elective hysteroscopy surgery were randomly divided into the following three groups of 120 patients each: control (Group C), sham TEAS (Group F), and TEAS (Group T). Patients in Group C did not undergo any treatment before surgery; 30 min before the induction of anesthesia, patients in Groups F and T underwent electrical stimulation of the bilateral LI4-PC6 acupoint. Patients in Group F were subjected to "feeling flow", while those in Group T were subjected to "tolerance flow. " The stimulation frequency was 2/100 Hz and the duration of stimulation was 30 min. After the induction of anesthesia, propofol injection-related pain scores, hemodynamic parameters, and adverse reactions were recorded.Results: Of the 360 patients, 324 completed the study. There were significant differences among the groups in terms of the incidence of moderate-to-severe pain. In terms of the four-point scaling method, the end of the radial vein, the cubital vein, and the "back of the hand" vein differed significantly among the three groups (P = 0.05). Finally, using a numerical rating scale, a significant difference was observed among the three groups in terms of the pain scores in the different veins.Conclusions: Pretreatment TEAS effectively reduces the incidence and severity of propofol injection-related pain, the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, and patient postoperative pain scores.

Pretreatment with transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation to prevent postoperative ileus in patients undergoing laparoscopic colon surgery: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

“…Previous studies have shown that pretreatment has a prophylactic effect. For example, pretreatment with TEAS has been shown to improve pain treatment 26 27 and to improve resuscitation after anaesthesia, with reduction of postoperative nausea and vomiting. 28 It is, however, unclear whether preoperative TEAS can prevent POI.…”

Effect of Preemptive Intravenous Ibuprofen on propofol Injection Pain

“…Methods and medications applied to prevent propofol injection pain have been investigated from aspects such as causing increasing labor in the intense operating room process and financial resources. However, currently research into the topic shows propofol injection pain as a complication of anesthesia, albeit one with low morbidity, and research into the topic continues to be on the agenda [3,12,13]. Propofol irritates skin and mucous membranes as all phenols do.…”

“…Pei et al [23] in a review of PubMed, Cochrane Library and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) researched the efficacy of ondansetron and reported that ondansetron had similar efficacy to lidocaine in reducing propofol injection pain. In recent years, there are studies in the literature on whether methods like acupuncture, heating the intravenous entry point and pretreatment with ketamine are effective in preventing propofol injection pain [12,24]. Some agents used to prevent propofol injection pain have the possibility of causing adverse effects related to the procedure applied to the patient in special circumstances.…”

Clinical Study on the Combination of Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation and Lidocaine for Preventing Propofol Injection Pain

“… 15 This yields an effect similar to that of acupuncture and moxibustion, with subsequent analgesic effects. 16 , 17 Several clinical studies have shown that the analgesic effect of TEAS can be effective continuously, and it is not easy to lose the effect, and it has the advantages of being simple to administer, safe, and noninvasive. 18–20 It can also shorten the perioperative period in patients with inflammatory reactions, modulate immunity, and promote oxygenation, and it has been widely used in clinical research.…”

“…Our previous studies confirmed that TEAS can alleviate propofol injection pain. 16 This study investigated the effects of TEAS combined with lidocaine on propofol injection pain. The purpose of this trial is to reduce the incidence of propofol injection pain and the severity of injection pain, observe its analgesic effect and whether it can reduce postoperative complications such as abdominal pain, bloating, nausea and vomiting, and promote faster and better postoperative patients.…”