NCT06566274

Thumbtack Needle in the Treatment of NVP

Clinical Efficacy and Safety Evaluation of Thumbtack Needle in Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 320 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Dongmei Huang · Academic / Other
• Sex: Female
• Age: 20 Years – 45 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This project intends to use multi-center, large-sample, randomized, controlled, blinded clinical trials to observe the clinical efficacy and safety of thumbtack needle (TN) on nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP).

Detailed description

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP) is the most common and intractable problem in the first trimester and is the second most common presentation during pregnancy. All types of NVP affect the quality of life of pregnant women, and the intensity of influence increases with the frequency of symptoms. Due to the lack of awareness of NVP and the concern about the teratogenicity of drugs to embryos, the treatment of NVP is always insufficient, and the choice of drug regimen is conservative. Acupuncture using traditional millineedle is effective on NVP, however, it is generally painful when the millineedle is inserted into the body, and the needling sensation of soreness, numbness, swelling and pain during acupuncture is sometimes beyond patient's acceptability, or even produce adverse effects on pregnancy. Moreover, patients may have to visit acupuncturist daily using millineedle, which may causes high financial costs and reduce the medial adherence. Therefore, although acupuncture with millineedle is effective on NVP, its application in clinical practice is still very limited. As a kind of intradermal needle, thumbtack needle (TN) is a method of shallow puncture and long-term retention needle. Although the amount of stimulation of TN is weaker than that of millineedle, it has a much longer effect and can produce continuous and stable stimulation, and therefore, its cumulative effect is often better than that of traditional millineedle acupuncture. Moreover, due to the tiny needle body of TN (the diameter of the needle body is only 0.15 \~ 0.25mm, and the length of the needle body is only 1.2 \~ 2.5mm), it will not hurt the subcutaneous nerves, blood vessels, viscera and other tissues, which is very comfortable and safe to treat, and overcomes the needle sting pain of traditional millineedles. However, up to now, it is unknown whether TN can produce the same effect as the acupuncture in NVP. This project is a multi-center, large-sample and blinded RCT designed to collect the highest quality evidence of complete data, including nausea and vomiting, quality of life, anxiety and depression, weight change, blood electrolyte levels, liver and kidney function, thyroid function, intravenous fluid treatment, use of additional drugs, hospital admission, pregnancy complications (gestational diabetes and hypertensive diseases), pregnancy outcomes and neonatal outcomes in women with VNP.

Conditions

• Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy (NVP)

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DEVICE	thumbtack needle	As a kind of intradermal needle, thumbtack needle (TN) is a method of shallow puncture and long-term needle.After the TN is attached into the acupoints, it will be reserved in the acupoints for 3 days. After 3 days of retention of TN, the patient is instructed to go to the hospital, where the doctor removes the needle, disinfect the local skin of acupoints and conducts the next TN treatment. A total of 5 treatments were applied for a duration of 15 days.
DEVICE	sham thumbtack needle	The sham TN used in the sham TN group has no needle body and its appearance and shape are similar to the real TN. But it does not produce a needle-like effect. The acupoints of sham TN group are the same as those of TN group. The use of sham TN is the same as that of the TN group. After 3 days retention of sham TN, the patient will be instructed to go to the hospital, where the doctor remove the sham TN, and conduct the next treatment after local skin disinfection. A total of 5 treatments will be applied for a duration of 15 days.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-10-01
• Primary completion: 2028-10-01
• Completion: 2028-12-31
• First posted: 2024-08-22
• Last updated: 2026-01-08

Locations

13 sites across 1 country: China