[Effect of electroacupuncture pretreatment on the quality of recovery in the patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal surgery].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effect of electroacupuncture pretreatment on the quality of recovery in the patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal surgery.

METHODS

Sixty patients for elective laparoscopic resection of gastrointestinal tumors under general anesthesia were randomly assigned to either an observation group or a control group, with 30 patients in each group. In the control group, the routine inhalation-intravenous combined general anesthesia was adopted. On the basis of the control group, in the observation group, 30 min before anesthesia induction, electroacupuncture was applied to bilateral Neiguan (PC 6) and Neimadian (Extra) for 30 min, using disperse-dense wave and at 2 Hz/100 Hz. The recovery time of spontaneous breathing, awakening time, extubation time, and the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) stay time were compared between the two groups. Mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and oxygen saturation (SpO) were recorded at multiple time points: before electroacupuncture (T0), before extubation (T1), immediately after extubation (T2), 5 minutes (T3) and 10 minutes (T4) after extubation, and upon discharge from PACU (T5). The visual analogue scale (VAS) score for pain and Ramsay sedation score at T3, T4 and T5 were observed; and the incidence of agitation, nausea and vomiting at T5 was evaluated in the two groups. At T0 and T5, the serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and cortisol were determined in the two groups.

RESULTS

In the observation group, the recovery time of spontaneous breathing, awakening time, extubation time, and PACU stay time were shorter (<0.001), MAP and HR at T2 were lower (<0.01, <0.05), the VAS scores for pain at T3, T4, and T5 dropped (<0.001, <0.01), and the Ramsay sedation score at T3 reduced (<0.05) compared with those in the control group. The incidence of nausea and vomiting was lower in the observation group when compared with that in the control group (<0.05). In comparison with the indexes at T0, the serum levels of TNF-α, IL-6, and cortisol increased at T5 in both groups (<0.01); and these indexes at T5 in the observation group were lower than those in the control group (<0.01, <0.05).

CONCLUSION

Electroacupuncture pretreatment can enhance the quality of recovery in the patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal tumor surgery, shorten the time for spontaneous breathing recovery, awakening, extubation and PACU stay, and attenuate postoperative pain and stress response.