Effect of auricular acupressure therapy for the prevention of postoperative nausea and vomiting after gynecological surgery

Objective: Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is still a troubling problem in patients who undergo gynecological surgery, especially in patients using morphine for patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). In this study, we investigated whether auricular acupressure therapy reduced the incidence of PONV. Materials and Methods: A total of 150 female patients (ASA I-II, aged 18-65 years) scheduled to undergo myomectomy or hysterectomy were enrolled in this double-blind, placebo-controlled study and randomly assigned to one of three groups. In groups I and II, we taped seeds of Wangbuliuxing onto auricular points (two sets of four) and asked patients to compress these points four times a day. Group III acted as the control group. Results: Data were available for 124 patients. The incidence of PONV in group I was significantly decreased in the first 2 days (day 1: 16%; day 2: 12%) compared with group II (day 1: 42%, p = 0.021; day 2: 32%, p = 0.048) and group III (day 1: 40%, p = 0.030; day 2: 35%, p = 0.023). Conclusion: Auricular acupressure therapy at the shenmen, jiaogan, wei, and pizhixia points prevented PONV after gynecological surgery with PCA.