Treatment of Patients with Chronic Postoperative Complaints with Kiiko Matsumoto Style Acupuncture: An Observational Study

Abstract

Abstract

Background:

Chronic postoperative complaints (CPC), including pain and dysfunction, lasting months to years after common operations, have reached epidemic proportions. There is a paucity of reports on acupuncture acupuncture treatments for CPC.

Objective:

The aim of this study was to perform nonblinded observation of acupuncture treatment for chronic postoperative complaints.

Design:

This study was comprised of a nonblinded, nonrandomized, prospective, observational case series. The records presented in this article are a subset of research clinic records.

Setting:

The study was conducted at a free acupuncture research clinic, at Fletcher Allen Health Care. The clinic was managed by the Department of Anesthesia of the University of Vermont's College of Medicine.

Patients:

The patients in this study were 17 nonblinded volunteers.

Interventions:

The interventions included Kiiko Matsumoto–style pressure-release acupuncture, and supplementary electroacupuncture, auriculotherapy, and additional points when indicated.

Main Outcome Measures:

The study measured the patients' reported symptoms, which were assessed in each case by the treating physician as being minimum, moderate, or full improvement/recovery.

Results:

Eleven of 17 patients were benefited by acupuncture. Among 9 patients who received 5 or more treatments, 100% of these patients reported improvement. Eight of the 9 patients achieved moderate-to-full improvement, and 1 patient had minimal improvement. For 8 patients, who only received 1–4 treatments, 2 of these patients reported benefit, 1 moderate and 1 full. The Spearman nonparametric rank correlation coefficient=0.6296; p-value=0.0094. This showed improvement was highly correlated to the number of treatments received.

Conclusions:

Improvement in patients with CPP treated with acupuncture correlates to the number of treatments. Nonbinding pain contracts to motivate patients with CPP to stay under acupuncture treatment are advisable.