TY - JOUR
T1 - Treatment of acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with acupuncture during hospitalization
T2 - a three-arm double-blinded randomized sham-controlled trial
AU - Levy, Ilana
AU - Elimeleh, Yotam
AU - Gavrieli, Sagi
AU - Attias, Samuel
AU - Schiff, Ariel
AU - Oliven, Arie
AU - Schiff, Elad
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/12/1
Y1 - 2022/12/1
N2 - Background: Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) are a healthcare burden. Acupuncture improves dyspnea in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but, to the best of our knowledge, has not been tested in AECOPD. Here, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of true acupuncture added to standard of care (SOC), as compared with both sham procedure plus SOC and SOC only, for the treatment of AECOPD among inpatients. Methods: This double-blinded randomized sham-controlled trial was set in a tertiary hospital in Israel. Patients with a clinical diagnosis of AECOPD were assigned to true acupuncture with SOC, sham procedure with SOC or SOC only. The primary outcome was dyspnea improvement as measured daily by the validated modified Borg (mBorg) scale. Secondary outcomes included improvement of other patient-reported outcomes and physiologic features, as well as duration of hospitalization and treatment failure. Acupuncture-related side effects were evaluated by the validated Acup-AE questionnaire. Results: Seventy-two patients were randomized: 26 to acupuncture treatment, 24 to sham and 22 to SOC only arms. Baseline characteristics were similar in the three groups. A statistically significant difference in dyspnea intensity was found from the first day of evaluation after treatment (p = 0.014) until day 3 after treatment. Similar results were found for sputum production, but no statistical significance was found when comparing physiologic features between the three arms. Acupuncture was not associated with adverse events. Conclusion: Acupuncture seems to be efficacious in the treatment of AECOPD among inpatients hospitalized in internal medicine departments. Trial registration number: NCT03398213 (ClinicalTrials.gov)
AB - Background: Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) are a healthcare burden. Acupuncture improves dyspnea in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) but, to the best of our knowledge, has not been tested in AECOPD. Here, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of true acupuncture added to standard of care (SOC), as compared with both sham procedure plus SOC and SOC only, for the treatment of AECOPD among inpatients. Methods: This double-blinded randomized sham-controlled trial was set in a tertiary hospital in Israel. Patients with a clinical diagnosis of AECOPD were assigned to true acupuncture with SOC, sham procedure with SOC or SOC only. The primary outcome was dyspnea improvement as measured daily by the validated modified Borg (mBorg) scale. Secondary outcomes included improvement of other patient-reported outcomes and physiologic features, as well as duration of hospitalization and treatment failure. Acupuncture-related side effects were evaluated by the validated Acup-AE questionnaire. Results: Seventy-two patients were randomized: 26 to acupuncture treatment, 24 to sham and 22 to SOC only arms. Baseline characteristics were similar in the three groups. A statistically significant difference in dyspnea intensity was found from the first day of evaluation after treatment (p = 0.014) until day 3 after treatment. Similar results were found for sputum production, but no statistical significance was found when comparing physiologic features between the three arms. Acupuncture was not associated with adverse events. Conclusion: Acupuncture seems to be efficacious in the treatment of AECOPD among inpatients hospitalized in internal medicine departments. Trial registration number: NCT03398213 (ClinicalTrials.gov)
KW - acupuncture
KW - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
KW - complementary medicine
KW - double blind
KW - dyspnea
KW - exacerbation
KW - integrative medicine
KW - sham
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130617876&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/09645284221086293
DO - 10.1177/09645284221086293
M3 - Article
C2 - 35579025
AN - SCOPUS:85130617876
SN - 0964-5284
VL - 40
SP - 505
EP - 515
JO - Acupuncture in Medicine
JF - Acupuncture in Medicine
IS - 6
ER -