Acupuncture intervention for acute pain in the emergency department trial: A consensus process

Authors

Arya Nielsen, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Juli Olson, Department of Veterans Affairs, Central Iowa, Des Moines, IA, USA.
Megan Quesada, University Hospitals Connor Whole Health, Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Chongbin Zhu, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Health, Nashville, TN, USA.
Erin Raskin, Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
Bobbee Vang, Penny George Institute For Health and Healing, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Jeannette Painovich, Simple.Holistic.Health, Los Alamitos, CA, USA.
Megan Scott, Tanya I. Edwards, MD Center for Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Vashir J. Xiong, Advocate Aurora HealthFollow
Jeffery A. Dusek, University Hospitals Connor Whole Health, Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Recommended Citation

Nielsen A, Olson J, Quesada M, et al. Acupuncture intervention for acute pain in the Emergency Department trial: a consensus process. Acupunct Med. 2022;40(4):339-346. doi:10.1177/09645284221076507

Abstract

Purpose: This document describes the consensus process and intervention for a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded multi-site feasibility study utilizing acupuncture for ACUte paIn in The EmergencY Department (ACUITY). The acupuncture intervention is designed to be flexible and responsive to the most common Emergency Department (ED) scenarios, including trauma, acute pain of the low back, abdomen and/or musculoskeletal system, renal colic and headache.

Background: Opioids remain a primary treatment for acute ED pain with attendant risk of adverse effects, addiction liability, diversion and death. Effective/safer options for acute pain are needed. Although acupuncture therapy has shown promise for acute pain in the ED alone or in conjunction with usual care, pragmatic trials are needed to obtain definitive and generalizable evidence.

Methods: An Acupuncture Advisory Panel was convened that included nine acupuncture experts with 5-44 years of experience in practice and 2-16 years of experience in the acute pain care setting. A modified Delphi process was used with provision of a literature review, surveys of our panel members, three online discussions and email discussion as needed. The STandards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials (STRICTA) checklist was used as a guide.

Results: A responsive acupuncture intervention was agreed on for ACUITY. Session forms were fashioned in REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture program to capture essential treatment data, assess fidelity and inform our design for a future pragmatic multi-site randomized controlled trial (RCT) of acupuncture in the ED, and for use by other future researchers.

Conclusion: Development of a responsive manualization intervention provides the appropriate framework for conducting a future, pragmatic, multi-site, definitive RCT of acupuncture in the ED.

Document Type

Article

PubMed ID

35229658