Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials: 2. Review of clinical trial reports: 2.1. Pain: 2.1.4. Biliary and renal colic

Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials
(2003; 87 pages)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
	Background
	Objectives
	Use of the publication
1. General considerations
	1.1. Definition
	1.2. Need for evaluation
	1.3. Evaluation methodology
	1.4. Safety
	1.5. Availability and practicability
	1.6. Studies on therapeutic mechanisms
	1.7. Selection of clinical trial reports
2. Review of clinical trial reports
	2.1. Pain
		2.1.1. Head and face
		2.1.2. Locomotor system
		2.1.3. Gout
		2.1.4. Biliary and renal colic
		2.1.5. Traumatic or postoperative pain
		2.1.6. Dentistry
		2.1.7. Childbirth
		2.1.8. Surgery
	2.2. Infections
	2.3. Neurological disorders
	2.4. Respiratory disorders
	2.5. Digestive disorders
	2.6. Blood disorders
	2.7. Urogenital disorders
	2.8. Gynaecological and obstetric disorders
	2.9. Cardiovascular disorders
	2.10. Psychiatric disorders and mental disturbances
	2.11. Paediatric disorders
	2.12. Disorders of the sense organs
	2.13. Skin diseases
	2.14. Cancers
	2.15. Other reports
3. Diseases and disorders that can be treated with acupuncture
4. Summary table of controlled clinical trials
References

2.1.4. Biliary and renal colic

Acupuncture is suitable for treating acute pain, provided the relief of pain will not mask the correct diagnosis, for which other treatments may be needed. Biliary and renal colic are two conditions for which acupuncture can be used not only as an analgesic but also as an antispasmodic. In controlled studies on biliary colic (62-64) and renal colic (7, 65, 66), acupuncture appears to have advantages over conventional drug treatments (such as intramuscular injection of atropine, pethidine, anisodamine (a Chinese medicine structurally related to atropine, isolated from Anisodus tanguticus), bucinnazine (also known as bucinperazine) or a metamizole-camylofin combination). It provides a better analgesic effect in a shorter time, without side-effects. In addition, acupuncture is effective for relieving abdominal colic, whether it occurs in acute gastroenteritis or is due to gastrointestinal spasm (67).