• Ayse Ecevit, Deniz Anuk Ince, Aylin Tarcan, Mehmet Tugrul Cabioglu, and Abdullah Kurt.
• Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Baskent University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey.
• J Tradit Chin Med. 2011 Dec 1; 31 (4): 308-10.

ObjectiveTo evaluate analgesic effects of acupuncture in preterm neonates during minor painful procedures.MethodsTen preterm neonates requiring heel prick for blood gas analysis were enrolled in the study, which had a crossover design. Oxygen saturation, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, heart rate, and crying duration were recorded before and after heel prick. Babies were given expressed breast milk before each procedure. Patients were randomly assigned to receive acupuncture or not, and the groups were crossed over on the following day, so that patients who had received acupuncture received only breast milk, and the previous breast milk only group received both acupuncture and breast milk. The neonatal infant pain scale (NIPS) was used for pain evaluation.ResultsCrying duration and NIPS pain scores during heel prick were lower in the neonates who had received acupuncture.ConclusionAcupuncture is an effective method for the treatment of pain in neonates.

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