ABSTRACT
Objective To observe the effect of pre-intervention with electroacupuncture at Neiguan (PC 6) plusα2-adrenoceptor (α2AR) agonist on peri-operative heart rate variability (HRV).Method A total of 120 patients going to receive lower limb orthopedic surgery were randomized into four groups by using the random number table, namely a control group (group A), an electroacupuncture group (group C), anα2AR agonist group (group D) and an electroacupuncture plus medication group (group N), 30 cases in each group. The indicators of heart rate variability (HRV), including the standard deviation of normal-to-normal (N-N) intervals (SDNN), standard deviation of the average of N-N intervals (SDANN), root mean square successive differences (rMSSD), percentage of adjacent N-N intervals>50 ms apart (pNN50), low-frequency power (LF), high-frequency power (HF), LF/HF and total power (TP) were recorded 1 d prior and 1 d after the operation; meanwhile, the mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) were recorded before incubation (T0), right after incubation (T1), 5 min after incubation (T2), right afterextubation (T3), 5 min after extubation (T4), 60 min after extubation (T5), and 180 after extubation (T6).Result In group N, the HR and MAP at the other time points were insignificantly different from those at T0 (P>0.05); in group A, the HR and MAP at T1-T6 were significantly different from those at T0 (P<0.05); in group C and D, the HR and MAP at T1-T4 were significantly different from those at T0 (P<0.05); the HR and MAP in group N were significantly lower than those in group A at T1-T6 (P<0.05) and were significantly lower than those in group C and D at T1-T4 (P<0.05); the HR and MAP in group C and D were significantly lower than those in group A at T5 and T6 (P<0.05). In group A, the LF, HF, LF/HF and TP 1 d after the operation were significantly increased compared to those 1 d prior to the operation (P<0.05); in group A and D, the SDNN, SDANN, rMSSD, and pNN501 d after the operation were significantly lower than those 1 d prior to the operation (P<0.05); the LF, HF, LF/HF, and TP in group C, D and N were significantly lower than those in group A 1 d after the operation (P<0.05); the SDNN, SDANN, rMSSD, and pNN50 in group C and N were significantly higher than those in group A and D 1 d after the operation (P<0.05). Conclusion Pre-intervention electroacupuncture plusα2AR agonist can improve the balance of cardiac sympathetic and vagus nerves, and better maintain the peri-operative hemodynamic stability.