Acupuncture intervention for acute pain in the Emergency Department trial: a consensus process.

PURPOSE: This document describes the consensus process and intervention for a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded multi-site feasibility study utilizing acupuncture for ACUte paIn in The EmergencY Department (ACUITY). The acupuncture intervention is designed to be flexible and responsive to the most common Emergency Department (ED) scenarios, including trauma, acute pain of the low back, abdomen and/or musculoskeletal system, renal colic and headache. BACKGROUND: Opioids remain a primary treatment for acute ED pain with attendant risk of adverse effects, addiction liability, diversion and death. Effective/safer options for acute pain are needed. Although acupuncture therapy has shown promise for acute pain in the ED alone or in conjunction with usual care, pragmatic trials are needed to obtain definitive and generalizable evidence. METHODS: An Acupuncture Advisory Panel was convened that included nine acupuncture experts with 5-44 years of experience in practice and 2-16 years of experience in the acute pain care setting. A modified Delphi process was used with provision of a literature review, surveys of our panel members, three online discussions and email discussion as needed. The STandards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials (STRICTA) checklist was used as a guide. RESULTS: A responsive acupuncture intervention was agreed on for ACUITY. Session forms were fashioned in REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture program to capture essential treatment data, assess fidelity and inform our design for a future pragmatic multi-site randomized controlled trial (RCT) of acupuncture in the ED, and for use by other future researchers. CONCLUSION: Development of a responsive manualization intervention provides the appropriate framework for conducting a future, pragmatic, multi-site, definitive RCT of acupuncture in the ED. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04880733 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

Utilization of Acupuncture Services in the Emergency Department Setting: A Quality Improvement Study.

PURPOSE: Patients often present to the emergency department (ED) for pain. As opioid fatalities rise, alternative treatments are warranted for pain management. Acupuncture, a nonpharmacological treatment involving the insertion of needles into skin or tissue at specific points within the body, may help to decrease acute pain. Our study aimed to assess the utilization and impact of acupuncture in the ED for acute pain management. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of purposefully collected quality improvement data. Patients who were ≥18 years old and who presented to the ED at an urban medical center in Wisconsin during 2017 were offered acupuncture services based on their emergency severity index (ESI; range: highest severity [1] - lowest severity [5]), reason for visit, and physician approval. Paired t-tests were used to examine mean differences between pre- and post-acupuncture pain, stress, anxiety, and nausea scores (range: none [0] - worst [10]). Multivariable regression models also were constructed. RESULTS: A total of 379 patients received acupuncture. Patients presented predominately with an ESI score of 3 (68.9%) or 4 (24.8%); 46.4% received opioids in the ED. Mean pre- and post-acupuncture pain scores significantly differed (6.5 vs 3.4; P<0.001); receiving opioids during the ED visit was not associated with improved pain scores (P=0.948). Stress (5.7 vs 1.9), anxiety (4.8 vs 1.6), and nausea (1.6 vs 0.6) scores also improved (P<0.001) following acupuncture. CONCLUSIONS: Emergency department acupuncture significantly decreased pain, stress, anxiety, and nausea. Our findings support a larger randomized controlled trial to further assesses the impact of acupuncture for acute pain in other ED settings.