Aim of the study To investigate whether auricular acupuncture (AA) will reduce postoperative pain and analgesic requirement in comparison with sham AA in patients after elective knee arthroplasty Design Prospective randomized controlled blinded clinical trial Participants: * Patients \< 80 und \> 50 years old * scheduled for knee arthroplasty under general anesthesia with \< 120 minutes duration * Without previous opioid medication * Able to give informed consent Outcome measures * Postoperative analgesic requirement * Incidence of side effects * Physiological parameters
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
QUADRUPLE
Enrollment
150
Auricular acupuncture with indwelling fixed needles at specific AA points
Sham auricular acupuncture (AA) with indwelling fixed needles applied at non-AA points
Postoperative requirement of analgesic tilidine (measured in mg)
Requirement of opioid analgesic tilidin
Time frame: Six days following surgery
Side effects of analgesics
Incidence of nausea and vomiting
Time frame: Six days following surgery
heart rate
heart rate
Time frame: 12 hours after surgery
blood pressure
blood pressure
Time frame: 12 hours following surgery
Patients' satisfaction with the treatment of postoperative pain using NRS-5 (where 1=excellent; 5=very bad)
Time frame: 12 hours following surgery
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