Adding acupuncture to usual care for patients in an emergency department (ED) is feasible and provides effective pain and nausea relief. A feasibility study was undertaken at an Australian hospital involving 400 people presenting to ED triage with pain and/or nausea. The acupuncture group comprised 200 patients who received usual medical care plus acupuncture; the usual care group comprised retrospective data from electronic health records of 200 closely matched patients. Over half of the patients (57%) reported a satisfaction score of 10/10 for acupuncture treatment and 52.5% of participants responded ‘definitely yes’ for their willingness to repeat acupuncture. Musculoskeletal conditions were the most common conditions treated, followed by abdominal or flank pain. Adverse events were rare (2%) and mild. Pain scores reduced from a mean of 7.01 before acupuncture to 4.72 after acupuncture, and nausea scores from 2.6 to 1.42 respectively.

Acupuncture and standard emergency department care for pain and/or nausea and its impact on emergency care delivery: a feasibility study. Acupunct Med. 2014 Mar 7.

 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24610638