Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials: 2. Review of clinical trial reports: 2.1. Pain: 2.1.5. Traumatic or postoperative pain

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

2.1.5. Traumatic or postoperative pain

For traumas such as sprains, acupuncture is not only useful for relieving pain without the risk of drug dependence, but may also hasten recovery by improving local circulation (68-70). Acupuncture analgesia to relieve postoperative pain is well recognized and has been confirmed in controlled studies (71-76). The first successful operation under acupuncture analgesia was a tonsillectomy. This was, in fact, inspired by the success of acupuncture in relieving post-tonsillectomy pain. Post-tonsillectomy acupuncture was re-evaluated in a controlled study in 1990, which not only showed prompt alleviation of throat pain, but also reduction in salivation and promotion of healing in the operative wound (76).