Using Silver Spike Point Needle-free Electro- Acupuncture for Postoperative Pain Management

The severity of postoperative pain is affected by many factors including the patient’s age, sex, personality, knowledge of and confidence in the procedure, attitude of the staff, and the individual's physiological condition. The same procedure can produce different degrees of postoperative pain in different patients. Even though, in most cases, upper abdominal or thoracic surgery causes severe postoperative pain, superficial operations still cause mild postoperative pain. Patients usually feel the most pain in the first few hours after surgery. Postoperative pain can result in irritability, insomnia, increased heart rate, hypertension, excessive perspiration, overactive metabolism, tachycardia, diaphoresis, mydriasis, pallor and increased myocardial oxygen consumption. In patients with coronary artery disease, postoperative pain can result in myocardial ischemia and possible infarction that in turn may delay postoperative recovery. Intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is an accepted method to relieve postoperative pain. Opioids are often used as an analgesic for severe pain management. Possible adverse effects are respiratory depression, constipation, vomiting, gastroparesis, and central nervous system depression including somnolence and consciousness disturbance. Opioid-related side effects often occur post-operatively, and are related to the total dosage of opioid medication. Non-pharmaceutical products can be an alternative in the treatment of post-operative pain and produce less adverse effects. Acupuncture’s ability to control pain has been documented for thousands of years and has become well-accepted in modern Western medicine. Electrostimulation has a postoperative pain relieving effect when applied as either electroacupuncture (EA), transcutaneous nerve stimulation (TENS) or Silver Spike Point (SSP) therapy. SSP as needle-free EA and has been shown to have a similar analgesic effect to standard EA, where electrical stimulation is applied to needles that have been inserted into acupuncture points, and a superior effect than TENS. The acupuncture analgesic mechanism remains unclear in spite of successful clinical applications and recognition by WHO. This study investigated SSP needle-free EA's role in managing of postoperative pain and in reducing the adverse side effects of opioids.