Is Acupuncture Able to Reduce Nausea and Vomiting in the Terminal Ill Patient

Terminal Illness

Acupuncture, Nausea, Vomiting, Palliative care

A comparative effectiveness research design was used. The sample size was calculated to 136 patients, who were randomized to an intervention group and a control group respectively. The patients were terminal ill patients enrolled to three in-bed hospices in Denmark and nausea and vomiting were measured using EORTC QlQ-c15-PAL (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Quality of Life Questionaire, core 15, Palliation)

The terminal ill patient is suffering from many different symptoms. In total 70% are suffering from nausea and vomiting due to the wide spread of cancer or due to side effects of treatment. Often the antiemetic's are not able to reduce symptoms to a level that enable the patient to experience quality in life in the last days of his life. The investigators had some experience with acupuncture as a complementary therapy but the investigators wanted more systematically to investigate if acupuncture is able to reduce the terminal ill patient´s nausea and vomiting. Literature show that acupuncture is able to reduce nausea and vomiting in patients receiving chemotherapy, but there is no literature that support the ability of acupuncture to reduce nausea and vomiting in the terminal ill patient. The purpose of this study was to generate evidence based knowledge close to practice regarding the effect of acupuncture in reducing nausea and vomiting in the terminal ill patient. Participants: Terminal ill patients suffering from nausea and/or vomiting Interventions: The intervention group received usual care plus acupuncture for three days. The acupuncture spots: Pericardium-6, Stomach-36, Liver-3 and Yin Tang were used. The control group received usual care.

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