Effect of Electroacupuncture on the Incidence of Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients Undergoing the Major Surgery

November 16, 2022 updated by: Jianbo Yu, Tianjin Nankai Hospital

Effect of Electroacupuncture on the Incidence of Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients Undergoing the Major Surgery:a Prospective, Multicenter, Double-blind, Randomized Controlled Trial

  1. Title: Effect of electroacupuncture on the incidence of postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing the major surgery.
  2. Research center: Multicenter
  3. The Design of the study: Randomized, double-blind, controlled study
  4. The population of the study: Elderly patients(65≤age<90 years),it is planned to select a period/time limit for gastrointestinal tumor surgery, bile duct surgery, thoracic surgery or orthopedic surgery and so on under general anesthesia, and the estimated operation time≥ 2 hours.
  5. Sample size: Enroll 1100 patients (550 patients in each group)
  6. Interventions: Participants in the treatment group received acupuncture (0.30mm×70mm) at bilaterally Shenmen (HT7) acupoints (0.3-0.5 inch), Neiguan (PC6) acupoints (0.5-1 inch), Baihui (DU20) acupoint (0.5-0.8 inch) and Yintang (EX-HN3) acupoint (0.3-0.5 inch) 30 minutes before anesthesia induction. After "Deqi", electroacupuncture stimulation apparatus (HANS G6805-2, Huayi Co, Shanghai, China) is connected and maintained the end of operation. Participants in the control group received shallow needling (0.30mm×25mm) at bilateral sham HT7, PC6, DU20 and EX-HN3 (nonacupoints located 1 inch beside acupoints, about 20mm). Specifically, the depth of needle insertion into nonacupoints is 3-5mm and avoided manual stimulation and no "Deqi" without actual current output.
  7. The aim of the research: To investigate the effect of electroacupuncture on the incidence of postoperative delirium within 5 days in elderly patients undergoing the major surgery.
  8. Outcome: 1) Primary outcome:The incidence of delirium within 5 days after surgery;The effects on postoperative NRS pain and sleep quality scores; 2)Secondary outcome:Duration of mechanical ventilation in patients with endotracheal intubation on ICU admission; Length of stay in ICU and Length of stay in hospital after surgery; Incidence of postoperative complications (including re-hospitalization); 30-day life quality and cognitive function after surgery; All-cause 30-day mortality after surgery.
  9. The estimated duration of the study:3-4 years.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study is a large sample, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled and long-term follow-up design. In this study, bilateral Shenmen, Neiguan, Baihui and Yintang acupoints were selected for perioperative electroacupuncture treatment, accompanied with evaluating the incidence of delirium within 5 days after surgery,the effects on postoperative NRS pain and sleep quality scores as well as the detection of blood biochemical indexes such as serum S100β, brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), interleukin-6 and interleukin-8. To clarify the effect of electroacupuncture on the incidence of postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing the major surgery is of great significance to the clinical applications and popularization of traditional acupuncture treatment perioperatively across the world.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1100

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

    • Tianjin
      • Tianjin, Tianjin, China, 300100
        • Electroacupuncture Apparatus

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

65 years to 90 years (Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age≥65 and <90 years old;
  2. Planning to undergo select timed/limited surgery such as gastrointestinal tumor surgery, bile duct surgery and thoracic surgery etc under general anesthesia, and the estimated operation time is more than 2 hours;;
  3. Treatment without radiotherapy or chemotherapy prior to surgery;
  4. Agree to participate in this study and sign informed consent;

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Refuse to participate in this study;
  2. Preoperative history of schizophrenia, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, or myasthenia gravis;
  3. Inability to communicate in the preoperative period to complete preoperative evaluation because of severe dementia, coma, language barrier;
  4. Brain injury or neurosurgery;
  5. Critical condition (if the ASA grade is greater than or equal to grade IV before surgery); Severe renal impairment (dialysis treatment before surgery); Severe liver function impairment (Child-Pugh level C); Preoperative combined with severe heart disease, LVEF < 30%;
  6. Previous experience of acupoint stimulation therapy or non-insensitive to acupoint stimulation;
  7. The attending physician or researcher considers that there are other circumstances (reasons to be noted) that are not suitable for participation in this study.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: electroacupuncture treatment
Participants in the treatment group received acupuncture (0.30mm×70mm) at bilaterally Shenmen (HT7) acupoints (0.3-0.5 inch), Neiguan (PC6) acupoints (0.5-1 inch), Baihui (DU20) acupoint (0.5-0.8 inch) and Yintang (EX-HN3) acupoint (0.3-0.5 inch) 30 minutes before anesthesia induction. After "Deqi", electroacupuncture stimulation apparatus (HANS G6805-2, Huayi Co, Shanghai, China) is connected and maintained the end of operation.
Participants in the electroacupuncture group received acupuncture (0.30mm×70mm) at bilaterally Shenmen (HT7) acupoints (0.3-0.5 inch), Neiguan (PC6) acupoints (0.5-1 inch), Baihui (DU20) acupoint (0.5-0.8 inch) and Yintang (EX-HN3) acupoint (0.3-0.5 inch) 30 minutes before anesthesia induction. After "Deqi", electroacupuncture stimulation apparatus (HANS G6805-2, Huayi Co, Shanghai, China) is connected with the density wave (2/100 Hz), width 0.25 ms, intensity of 1 ~ 30 mA (gradually increase to the patient's maximum tolerance) and maintained the end of operation.
Sham Comparator: sham electroacupuncture treatment
Participants in the control group received shallow needling (0.30mm×25mm) at bilateral sham HT7, PC6, DU20 and EX-HN3 (nonacupoints located 1 inch beside acupoints, about 20mm). Specifically, the depth of needle insertion into nonacupoints is 3-5mm and avoided manual stimulation and no "Deqi" without actual current output.
Participants in the sham electroacupuncture group received shallow needling (0.30mm×25mm) at bilateral sham HT7, PC6, DU20 and EX-HN3 (nonacupoints located 1 inch beside acupoints, about 20mm). Specifically, the depth of needle insertion into nonacupoints is 3-5mm and avoided manual stimulation and no "Deqi" without actual current output, and retained the needle until the end of surgery.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The incidence of delirium within 5 days after surgery
Time Frame: an average of one year
Using confusion assessment method (CAM) or CAM-ICU methods to assess delirium
an average of one year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Duration of mechanical ventilation in patients with endotracheal intubation on ICU
Time Frame: an average of 1 year
Duration of mechanical ventilation and endotracheal intubation in ICU
an average of 1 year
Length of stay in hospital after surgery
Time Frame: 12 months
postoperative ICU stay time and hospitalization time
12 months
Incidence of non-delirium complications during the first 30 days after surgery (including re-hospitalization)
Time Frame: up to 1 year
cardiac events, cerebrovascular events, renal injury, infections, etc
up to 1 year
All-cause 30-day mortality after surgery
Time Frame: 1 year
All reasons (such as infection, hemorrhage) caused the mortality during the first 30 days after surgery
1 year
The effects on postoperative pain scores
Time Frame: up to 12 months
NRS method is used to evaluate the pain scores of patients (0 points to complete Painless, 10 points to the maximum pain that can be tolerated)
up to 12 months
The effects on postoperative sleep quality scores
Time Frame: up to one year
Using the NRS method (0 for the best quality of sleep and 10 for the worst quality of sleep)
up to one year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

September 7, 2018

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 31, 2022

Study Completion (Actual)

October 31, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 2, 2018

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 28, 2018

First Posted (Actual)

July 31, 2018

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

November 21, 2022

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 16, 2022

Last Verified

November 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • NKYY_YX_IRB_2017_036_02

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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