• Mateusz Szmit, Siddarth Agrawal, Waldemar Goździk, Andrzej Kübler, Anil Agrawal, Piotr Pruchnicki, Marta Woźniak, Matylda Nowak, Bartłomiej Bartoszewicz, and Jerzy Rudnicki.
• Department and Clinic of General, Minimally Invasive and Endocrine Surgery, Wroclaw Medical University, 50-556 Wroclaw, Poland.
• J Clin Med. 2021 Jan 4; 10 (1).

AbstractGiven the rising rate of opioid-related adverse drug events during postsurgical pain management, a nonpharmacologic therapy that could decrease analgesic medication requirements would be of immense value. We designed a prospective, placebo-and-randomized controlled trial to assess the clinical effect of transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation (TEAS) on the postoperative patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) requirement for morphine, as well as side effects and recovery profile after inguinal hernia repair. Seventy-one subjects undergoing inguinal hernia repair with a standardized anesthetic technique were randomly assigned to one of three analgesic treatment regimens: PCA + TEAS (n = 24); PCA + sham-TEAS (no electrical stimulation) (n = 24), and PCA only (n = 23). The postoperative PCA requirement, pain scores, opioid-related side effects, and blood cortisol levels were recorded. TEAS treatment resulted in a twofold decrease in the analgesic requirement and decreased pain level reported by the patients. In addition, a significant reduction of cortisol level was reported in the TEAS group at 24 h postoperatively compared to the sham and control groups. We conclude that TEAS is a safe and effective option for reducing analgesic consumption and postoperative pain following inguinal hernia repair.

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