Goals/Purpose.  Current rates of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) symptoms experienced by the outpatient surgery population have been as high as 20-30%.  Electroacustimulation (EAS) therapy has been demonstrated to be effective in controlling these symptoms, but trials identifying their efficacy in the outpatient surgery population are lacking.  This study represents an attempt to integrate Western pharmacotherapy and alternative medicine.

Methods/Techniques.  One hundred twenty-two patients undergoing outpatient surgery procedures at an outpatient surgery center were randomized to two treatment arms.  The first arm was a standardized pharmacologic PONV prevention method typical for patients undergoing outpatient surgery, while the second arm couples the use of ReliefBand, an FDA-approved electroacustimulation (EAS) device with pharmacologic treatment to relieve symptoms of PONV and pain.  EAS is a derivative of acupuncture therapy that uses a small electrical current to stimulate acupuncture points on the human body and is thought to relieve nausea, vomiting and pain.  Outcomes measured are post-op questionnaires evaluating pain and nausea symptoms, emetic events, the need for rescue medications and the time to discharge.

Results.  Overall, statistically significant findings include that patients in the electroacustimulation arm report lower nausea scores at 30 minutes and 90 minutes postoperatively (p< 0.05).  Additionally, subgroup analysis demonstrates significant findings in favor of the experimental group, with anatomical subsets groups of surgical patients requiring less pain medication (p<0.05) and shorter times from surgery to discharge when compared with the standard treatment (p<0.05).  EAS did not have a significant effect on the amount of pain experienced by patients in any group. 

Conclusion.  Our study demonstrates that EAS offers added protection against symptoms of PONV, representing a safe and cost-effective addition to current pharmacologic preventive measures.