Abstract
Objectives:
To study the effect of single-needle acupuncture in suppressing gag-reflex in transesophageal echocardiography (TEE).
Design:
Prospective, blinded trial.
Settings/locations:
Patients with ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack undergoing TEE because of presumed cardioembolic origin in a specialized stroke unit of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany.
Subjects/Study interventions:
Forty-one (41) patients were studied. Patients received single-needle acupuncture with a 0.2 × 13 mm disposable acupuncture needle (Suzhou Medical Appliances, China), 10-mm deep either at Chengjiang (midline between lower lip and chin) or superficially at a sham point (tip of the chin) during TEE or no acupuncture for alleviating gag reflex.
Outcome Measures:
Severity of gagging was rated on a visual-analogue scale.
Results:
The acupuncture group experienced significantly less gagging than the sham group (p = 0.037) or the nonacupuncture group (p = 0.013).
Conclusions:
Acupuncture of CV24 is an easy to apply and effective method to reduce gag reflex during TEE.
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