Effect of electroacupuncture on implementation of enteral nutrition in patients with severe craniocerebral injury / 中国中西医结合急救杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the effect of electroacupuncture on early enteral nutrition (EEN) support in patients with severe craniocerebral injury.Methods A prospective, randomized, controlled study was conducted, 50 patients with severe craniocerebral injury admitted to the the Department of Intensive Care Unit of Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Ningbo from January 2014 to October 2016 were enrolled, and they were randomly divided into electroacupuncture experimental group (26 cases) and conventional treatment control group (24 cases) by randome number table. Enteral nutrition (EN) support was implemented in 24 - 48 hours after admission for all the patients, additionally, the electroacupuncture experimental group was treated by electroacupuncture stimulating acupoint from the 1st day after admission, once 30 minutes daily for consecutive 10 days. The levels of EN calorie reaching standard situation and the parenteral nutrition (PN) necessary for addition were recorded on 3 days and 5 days after admission; the nasal feeding amount of the two groups was recorded on the 1, 4, 7 days; the incidences of complications during EN support period were observed in both groups.Results The proportion of EN calorie reaching the standard in electroacupuncture experimental group was significantly higher than that in the conventional treatment control group in 5 days of treatment [92.3% (24/26) vs. 70.8% (17/24),P < 0.05]. The proportions necessary for addition of PN support were lower in electroacupuncture experimental group than those in the conventional treatment control group on 3 days and 5 days of treatment [3 days: 19.2% (5/26) vs. 25.0% (6/24), 5 days: 7.7% (2/26) vs. 16.7% (4/24)], but there were no significant statistical differences between the two groups (bothP > 0.05). The nasal feeding amounts in electroacupuncture experimental group were significantly higher than those in the conventional treatment control group on 4 days and 7 days of treatment [4 days (mL): 1292.31±123.04 vs.1204.17±139.81,7 days (mL):1342.31±113.75 vs.1275.00±103.21, bothP < 0.05]. The incidence of complications of the electroacupuncture experimental group was significantly lower than that of the conventional treatment control group in 10 days of treatment [26.92% (7/26) vs. 41.67% (10/24),P < 0.05].Conclusions Application of electroacupuncture has a certain clinical value during implementing EN support for treatment of patients with severe craniocerebral injury, early intervention of electroacupuncture can effectively improve the patients' gastrointestinal function and elevate the successful rate of EN, and the therapy is simple, effective and safe without any obvious adverse reactions.