Acupuncture helps pain after prostate surgery, according to a German research team at University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg. Their randomised controlled trial set out to evaluate the effectiveness of adding acupuncture to standard postoperative pain management for 126 patients undergoing open radical prostatectomy.
Patients were divided into three groups: standard analgesia; acupuncture plus standard analgesia; sham acupuncture plus standard analgesia. The acupuncture group reported significantly less postoperative pain than the other two groups. No significant differences were observed between groups on analgesic use and health status at discharge. The team concludes that incorporating acupuncture into postoperative pain management can improve patient postoperative outcomes.
(A randomized controlled study on acupuncture for peri-operative pain after open radical prostatectomy. British Journal of Urology International/BJU Int, 5 February 2024.)