Effects of Auricular Acupressure on the Management of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting After Gynecological Laparoscopic Surgeries

Background: Post-operative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is common after surgery and anesthesia. Studies have indicated that females receiving gynecological surgeries have a higher incidence of PONV compared to other surgical patients. PONV not only causes discomfort, but may also lead to serious complications, affecting health outcomes. Currently, no single medication has shown universal efficacy for the prevention and treatment of PONV, thus it is empirical for the exploration of non-pharmaceutical methods for PONV management. Purposes: The aim of this study was to explore the efficacy of auricular acupressure on the reduction of PONV, post-operative anxiety, vital signs stability (respiration, heart rate, and blood pressure), and overall improvement of patient satisfaction. Methods: This study design was a randomized clinical trial, with the study population of patients with gynecological laparoscopic surgeries between the ages of 20 to 50, receiving general anesthesia for laparoscopic surgery. A total of 82 patients were enrolled, who were randomly allocated into the control and experimental groups using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software, with 40 patients in each group, after 2 patients were excluded. Demographic Survey and Hospital Anxiety Scale (Anxiety- HADS-A) were completed prior to surgery. Both group of patients received the auricular pellet acupressure after the first measurement of vital signs upon entry into the post-anesthesia care unit. The control group were given sham intervention of single ear auricular pellet acupressure at the knee(AH4) and thoracic vertebrae(AH11) acupuncture points, while the experimental group were given therapeutic intervention of single ear auricular pellet acupressure at the stomach(CO4), cardia(CO3), liver(CO12), occiput(AT3), shenmen(TF4) and subcortex(AT4) acupuncture points. The Index of Nausea, Vomiting, and Retching (INVR) and vital signs were surveyed 8 hours after surgery. The same was process was repeated 24 hours after surgery, along with Hospital Anxiety Scale (Anxiety- HADS-A) and anesthesia satisfaction surveys. The auricular acupressure were removed after 24 hours. Data was processed using SPSS version 26.0 statistical analysis package software, using independent samples t-test and chi-square test to identify differences between the two groups, and perform post-interventional effectiveness analysis with generalized estimating equations (GEE).