Acupuncture May Reduce the Need for Opioids After Surgery

Surgery can require lengthy recovery times, which often entail detailed plans for pain management. Opioids can help take the edge off severe pain, but they aren’t the best option for some people, and many of us want more options that don't risk dependence. Acupuncture could provide that solution. Here’s the science behind the practice.

Reducing Post-Op Pain

The stretch of time following surgery can be difficult to endure, even with narcotics. We often don’t appreciate how much work it takes for our bodies to heal, or how taxing pain can be. Pain medications can take the edge off, but the relief can be short-lived, relative to the dosing schedule. Also, narcotics can have side effects, such as nausea, dizziness and slowed GI movement, and of course, all meds carry various risks.

Despite their downsides, most of us wouldn’t want to imagine enduring the first week or two following any invasive procedure without prescription help. But there might be another option to at least reduce the need for those meds. It turns out that acupuncture could reduce users’ perception of pain, thus reducing the need for more extreme measures. The practice might seem far-fetched, but the studies say otherwise.

How Acupuncture Could Help

Researchers have explored the benefits of acupuncture in controlled settings, and their findings suggest far more than any placebo effect. One meta-analysis that compared post-op pain levels in a handful of studies showed dramatic differences in the amounts of pain medications patients required:

• At 8 hours in, patients using acupuncture needed an average of 21% less morphine.
• At 24 hours in, the acupuncture groups needed 23% less morphine than the control groups.
• At 72 hours in, patients using acupuncture needed 29% less morphine.

Less narcotic use means fewer side effects and lower chances of becoming addicted so it's hard to argue when things really work and have few downsides.

The mechanisms behind the effect are still being explored. Many proponents believe acupuncture needles can change the way energy flows through the body when strategically placed along specific “meridian” points. Others suggest the needles stimulate the release of endorphins and may have physical effects on circulatory, lymphatic and nervous systems. Whatever the means, the effects of this 5000-year-old practice are undeniable.

Acupuncture could improve postoperative recovery by reducing pain and limiting the effects of opioids on patients. About 86% of people report moderate to severe pain after surgery and that’s a lot of people who could be at risk for opioid addiction and other complications. Maybe it's time to try something else to boost recovery the next time you go under the knife?

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