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Review
. 2019 Mar 3:2019:2979780.
doi: 10.1155/2019/2979780. eCollection 2019.

Effectiveness of Perioperative Auricular Therapy on Postoperative Pain after Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials

Xin-Xin Ye  1   2 , Yu-Zhen Gao  3 , Zhong-Bo Xu  4 , Qi-Xi Liu  1 , Chen-Ju Zhan  1
Affiliations
Review

Effectiveness of Perioperative Auricular Therapy on Postoperative Pain after Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials

Xin-Xin Ye et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. .

Abstract

Auricular therapy (AT) is a conventional therapy in traditional Chinese medicine. However, the effectiveness of perioperative AT in pain treatment after total hip arthroplasty (THA) is still controversial. Nine randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving 605 patients who have undergone THA with or without AT from inception to March 2018 were collected and included in this study by searching more than 12 databases (e.g., PubMed, Excerpta Medica Database, and Cochrane Library). A random-effects model that pooled seven articles showed that the visual analogue scale (VAS) in the AT group was lower than that of the control group at each postoperative time point in patients after THA, except at the time points of 6 and 36 h. The intraoperative body mass-adjusted fentanyl amount in the AT group was also lower than that of the control group in two trials. The other outcomes (time to first analgesic request and incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, perioperative bradycardia, and transitory hypotension) showed insignificant difference. Then, subgroup analysis showed similar results to those of the total articles with the term "VAS". Regression analysis found that the prolonged time after the operation decreased the difference in VAS between the two groups. Although all the outcomes were assessed as very low to low in the GRADE system, evidence on the effectiveness of perioperative AT in pain treatment after total hip replacement was positive.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of study selection. CENTRAL: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CNKI: China National Knowledge Infrastructure, VIP: Chinese Scientific Journal Database, and CBM: Chinese Biomedical Literature Database.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Risk of bias graph and summary of the included 9 RCTs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pooled VAS pain score results in patients after auricular therapy and total hip arthroplasty.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Pooled body mass-adjusted Fentanyl amount and time to first analgesic request results in the patients after auricular therapy and total hip arthroplasty.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Postoperative nausea and vomiting, perioperative transitory hypotension, and bradycardia results in the patients after auricular therapy and total hip arthroplasty.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Metaregression for the VAS pain score in the patients after auricular therapy and total hip arthroplasty (P=0.108).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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