NCT05384860

Incorporating Acupuncture Into ERAS for Ambulatory Total Hip Replacement (THR) Surgery

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 484 (actual)
• Sponsor: Hospital for Special Surgery, New York · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 80 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

At this time, no formal ERAS (enhanced recovery after surgery) protocol exists for THR that incorporates perioperative acupuncture. Developing, and more importantly, validating a preliminary fast-track protocol for THR can have a significant impact on reducing recovery time and improving the rate at which this subgroup of surgeries is done on an outpatient basis. Furthermore, previous studies of acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy for postoperative analgesia have primarily investigated patient satisfaction rather than the impact on postoperative opioid consumption. The majority of studies also place acupuncture needles preoperatively, rather than following induction of anesthesia (intra-operatively). This study hopes to show that placing auricular therapy needles intraoperatively is a feasible part of a protocol for motivated patients to minimize opioids after total knee arthroplasty. The prospect of incorporating intraoperative acupuncture as an adjunct into said protocol is very attractive given its low cost, its safety profile, its ease of administration, and the growing evidence supporting its efficacy. This study would provide further clarity on whether perioperative acupuncture can effectively reduce hospital length of stay and post-operative opioid consumption, in addition to evaluating the role of perioperative acupuncture in improving recovery after THR as part of a multimodal fast-track protocol.

Conditions

• Acupuncture
• Hip Surgery
• Opioid Use

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	Auricular Trauma Protocol (ATP) Acupuncture	Small filiform (needle) like needles use low frequency electrostimulation at eight ear points for 60 minutes while patient is sedated during surgery. All other aspects of the surgical procedure will go as planned according to the hospital's standard of care.
OTHER	No Acupuncture Group	This involves not receiving the acupuncture treatment and surgery going entirely as normal according to the hospital's standard of care.

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-07-06
• Primary completion: 2025-04-04
• Completion: 2025-04-04
• First posted: 2022-05-20
• Last updated: 2025-12-11

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States

Regulatory

• FDA-regulated device study