Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 May 28:3:125.
doi: 10.4103/2277-9175.133206. eCollection 2014.

Electrical stimulation of acupuncture points for analgesia during bone marrow aspiration and biopsy: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial

Omid Shokrani  1 , Mahmood Saghaei  2 , Farzaneh Ashrafi  3 , Alireza Sadeghi  4
Affiliations

Electrical stimulation of acupuncture points for analgesia during bone marrow aspiration and biopsy: A randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial

Omid Shokrani et al. Adv Biomed Res. .

Abstract

Background: Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (BMA/BMB) is a painful procedure mostly used in diagnosing and staging of a broad spectrum of hematological diseases. In spite of local anesthesia, the prevalence and intensity of the pain and patient discomfort caused by this procedure are considerable. The effect of acupuncture and electrical stimulation of acupoints (acupuncture points) in the treatment of many medical conditions, including pain, have been approved. The study is designed to evaluate the effect of electrical stimulation of acupoints to decrease the pain during BMA/BMB in adults.

Materials and methods: In a double-blind controlled clinical trial, 50 patients undergoing BMA/BMB were randomly allocated into two groups, to receive either true or placebo electrical stimulation of acupoints LI-4 (large intestine 4, Hegu) and LI-11 (large intestine 11, Quchi), bilaterally. Both groups received infiltrative local anesthesia. The pain level caused by BMA/BMB was measured using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS).

Results: The means of the VAS in the case and control groups were 41.84 ± 20.54 and 69.40 ± 20.06 respectively (P < 0.001). The systolic and diastolic blood pressure and pulse rate rose significantly in both the groups compared to the basal values. The rise was lower in the acupuncture group compared to the placebo group regarding systolic blood pressure and pulse rate (P = 0.018 and P < 0.001, respectively).

Conclusions: The results of this study show that the electrical stimulation of acupoints significantly decreases the pain caused by BMA/BMB and some of the complications of the pain.

Keywords: Acupuncture; bone marrow examination; electrical stimulation; pain.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Dunlop TJ, Deen C, Lind S, Voyle RJ, Prichard JG. Use of combined oral narcotic and benzodiazepine for control of pain associated with bone marrow examination. South Med J. 1999;92:477–80. - PubMed
    1. Johnson H, Burke D, Plews C, Newell R, Parapia L. Improving the patient's experience of a bone marrow biopsy - an RCT. J Clin Nurs. 2008;17:717–25. - PubMed
    1. Vanhelleputte P, Nijs K, Delforge M, Evers G, Vanderschueren S. Pain during bone marrow aspiration: Prevalence and prevention. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2003;26:860–6. - PubMed
    1. Khurram Ghori M, Zyss . Pathophysiology of Acute Pain. In: Sinatra SR L-COGBVE, editor. Acute Pain Management. England: Cambridge University Press; 2009.
    1. Milligan DW, Howard MR, Judd A. Premedication with lorazepam before bone marrow biopsy. J Clin Pathol. 1987;40:696–8. - PMC - PubMed