ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT01362270Updated Mar 20, 2020Results posted

Acupuncture for Sedation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

An interventional study of Verum Acupuncture and Sham Acupuncture in Delirium, Respiratory Depression and Overmedication, sponsored by Oregon Health and Science University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-03-20.

Sponsored by Oregon Health and Science University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
15
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

BACKGROUND Many patients in the trauma intensive care unit (TICU) require mechanical ventilation and sedation or anxiolysis. Mechanical ventilation means that a machine is helping a patient breathe if he can't breathe on his own. Because of the mechanical ventilation, these patients also require some medication to help keep them calm. These are called sedatives or anxiolytics.

The purpose of this study is to see if acupuncture can lower the amount of sedation and anxiolysis needed by a subject during mechanical ventilation in the TICU. Acupuncture is a medical procedure. Hair-thin sterile needles are inserted at specific points on the body.

PROCEDURES Some subjects will get acupuncture and others will get 'fake' acupuncture. By using 'fake' acupuncture, no one other than the acupuncturists will know which group a subject is in. Subjects and the team do not get to pick which subject is in which group. Instead, the groups are picked randomly. Subjects will get real or fake acupuncture twice a day for five days.

Standard of care - Both groups will receive the standard of care while in the study. They will be mechanically ventilated and given sedatives and analgesics based on the TICU protocol.

Real acupuncture group - This group will receive real acupuncture with real needles. These are stainless steel, one time use, needles. This group will also receive "ear tacks" which are like little needles that can stay on the ear for a few days. The ear tacks will be covered with a bandage so no one can tell which group the subject is in.

Sham acupuncture group - This group will receive sham needles. These needles retract into themselves much like a 'magic sword' rather than poking the skin. Subjects in this group will not get ear tacks. In order to hide the group the subject is in, a bandage will be used to cover part of the ear.

HYPOTHESIS Real acupuncture will decrease subject's sedation requirements by 30% when compared to the sham acupuncture group.

02

Conditions studied

  • Delirium
  • Respiratory Depression
  • Overmedication

Keywords

  • Anxiolytics
  • Sedatives
  • Acupuncture Therapy
03

In context

Delirium

1,071 studies on the registry are indexed under Delirium; 239 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 15 is below the median of 119 across 608 interventional studies indexed under Delirium.

Browse Delirium studies →

Lead sponsor

Oregon Health and Science University is the lead sponsor of 694 studies on the registry; 133 are open to participants now.

Of its 51 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 39 (76%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Trauma patient ≥ 18 years admitted to the Trauma ICU
  • Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≥ 4
  • Mechanically ventilated \< 24 hours with anticipated need > 24 hours

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Inability to obtain consent from patient or designee
  • Receiving immunosuppressive therapy
  • Receiving therapeutic anticoagulant therapy
  • History of bleeding disorder, INR > 1.5, PTT > 65, PLT \< 20K
  • Pregnancy
  • Three (3) or more inaccessible acupoints
  • Head injury with elevated intracranial pressure or requiring operation
  • Patients with midline abdominal incision
  • Non-english speaking
  • Receipt of dexmedetomidine prior to or during study period
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Quadruple (Participant, Care provider, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
15 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Verum Acupuncture

    Subjects will receive acupuncture using real acupuncture needles.

    Device: Verum Acupuncture

  • Sham comparator
    Sham acupuncture

    Subjects will receive sham acupuncture therapy using the Streitberger needle at the same points and on the same schedule as patients in the treatment group. Streitberger needles are blunt tipped and retract into themselves rather than penetrating the skin.

    Device: Sham Acupuncture

Interventions

  • DeviceVerum Acupuncture

    DOSAGE: 25 acupoints per session FREQUENCY: 2 sessions per day DURATION: 5 days

    Also known as: Special No. 16 needles (Gauge 8 x 1.2")

  • DeviceSham Acupuncture

    DOSAGE: 25 acupoints per session FREQUENCY: 2 sessions per day DURATION: 5 days

    Also known as: Streitberger Placebo-needles (Gauge 8 x 1.2")

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Success of Blinding

    Care team, family and subject will be surveyed to determine success of blinding. Responses will be tallied and correlated with group assignments.

    Time frame: Nurse surveyed daily for length of study (five [5] days). Physician and subject (or subject's family if he/she is unable to complete the questionnaire) surveyed upon study completion, six (6) days after enrollment.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RAAS) Score

    Measure of sedation. Scale -5 to +4, with -5 equal to 'Unarousable' and +4 equal to 'Combative.'

    Time frame: Median RAAS score during treatment (5 days)

  2. Length of Ventilator Dependence

    Number of hours of ventilator use

    Time frame: Number hourss subject is ventilated. Subjects are expected to be ventilator dependent an average of 120 hours. Assessed up to discharge (estimated 3 weeks).

07

Results

Posted Mar 20, 2020

Participant flow

Participant flow — Overall Study
MilestoneVerum AcupunctureSham Acupuncture
Started78
Completed56
Not completed22
Withdrew: Withdrawal by subject10
Withdrew: Met exclusion criteria after 1st session01
Withdrew: Met excl. criteria before 1st session11

Outcome measures

PrimarySuccess of Blinding

Care team, family and subject will be surveyed to determine success of blinding. Responses will be tallied and correlated with group assignments.

Time frame:
Nurse surveyed daily for length of study (five [5] days). Physician and subject (or subject's family if he/she is unable to complete the questionnaire) surveyed upon study completion, six (6) days after enrollment.
Reported as:
Count of participants · Participants
Success of Blinding
ParticipantsVerum AcupunctureSham Acupuncture
Success of Blinding11
SecondaryRichmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RAAS) Score

Measure of sedation. Scale -5 to +4, with -5 equal to 'Unarousable' and +4 equal to 'Combative.'

Time frame:
Median RAAS score during treatment (5 days)
Reported as:
Median · score on a scale from +4 to -5
Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RAAS) Score
score on a scale from +4 to -5Verum AcupunctureSham Acupuncture
Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale (RAAS) Score-1.4 (-3.1 to -0.4)-1.9 (-2.8 to -0.6)
SecondaryLength of Ventilator Dependence

Number of hours of ventilator use

Time frame:
Number hourss subject is ventilated. Subjects are expected to be ventilator dependent an average of 120 hours. Assessed up to discharge (estimated 3 weeks).
Reported as:
Mean · hours
Length of Ventilator Dependence
hoursVerum AcupunctureSham Acupuncture
Length of Ventilator Dependence62.1 ± 32.4232.8 ± 244.4

Adverse events

Collected over 30 days. Non-serious events are listed at a 5% frequency threshold.

Adverse event summary by group
GroupDeathsSeriousOther
Verum Acupuncture—0/6 (0%)2/6 (33.3%)
Sham Acupuncture—0/7 (0%)0/7 (0%)
Most frequent other events
Most frequent other events
EventVerum AcupunctureSham Acupuncture
Bleeding at acupuncture siteSkin and subcutaneous tissue disorders2/60/7
Pain at acupuncture siteSkin and subcutaneous tissue disorders2/60/7

Baseline characteristics

Age, Categorical
Age, Categorical(Participants)Verum AcupunctureSham AcupunctureTotal
<=18 years000
Between 18 and 65 years5611
>=65 years112
Sex: Female, Male
Sex: Female, Male(Participants)Verum AcupunctureSham AcupunctureTotal
Female235
Male448
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)
Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)(Participants)Verum AcupunctureSham AcupunctureTotal
Hispanic or Latino000
Not Hispanic or Latino4610
Unknown or Not Reported213
Race (NIH/OMB)
Race (NIH/OMB)(Participants)Verum AcupunctureSham AcupunctureTotal
American Indian or Alaska Native011
Asian000
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander000
Black or African American000
White459
More than one race000
Unknown or Not Reported213
08

Study locations

1 site
  • Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU)
    Portland, Oregon 97239, United States
09

References and documents

Publications

  • Greif R, Laciny S, Mokhtarani M, Doufas AG, Bakhshandeh M, Dorfer L, Sessler DI. Transcutaneous electrical stimulation of an auricular acupuncture point decreases anesthetic requirement. Anesthesiology. 2002 Feb;96(2):306-12. doi: 10.1097/00000542-200202000-00014. PubMed 11818761 ↗
  • Wang SM, Kain ZN. Auricular acupuncture: a potential treatment for anxiety. Anesth Analg. 2001 Feb;92(2):548-53. doi: 10.1097/00000539-200102000-00049. PubMed 11159266 ↗
  • Nayak S, Wenstone R, Jones A, Nolan J, Strong A, Carson J. Surface electrostimulation of acupuncture points for sedation of critically ill patients in the intensive care unit--a pilot study. Acupunct Med. 2008 Mar;26(1):1-7. doi: 10.1136/aim.26.1.1. PubMed 18356793 ↗
  • McManus CA, Schnyer RN, Kong J, Nguyen LT, Hyun Nam B, Goldman R, Stason WB, Kaptchuk TJ. Sham acupuncture devices--practical advice for researchers. Acupunct Med. 2007 Jun;25(1-2):36-40. doi: 10.1136/aim.25.1-2.36. PubMed 17641566 ↗
  • Shapiro MB, West MA, Nathens AB, Harbrecht BG, Moore FA, Bankey PE, Freeman B, Johnson JL, McKinley BA, Minei JP, Moore EE, Maier RV; Inflammation and the Host Response to Injury Large Scale Collaborative Research Project. V. Guidelines for sedation and analgesia during mechanical ventilation general overview. J Trauma. 2007 Oct;63(4):945-50. doi: 10.1097/TA.0b013e318142d21b. No abstract available. PubMed 18090028 ↗
10

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 20, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
11

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01362270
Collaborators
Medical Research Foundation, Oregon
Responsible party
Jennifer M Watters (Associate Professor of Surgery, Director Surgical Critical Care, Oregon Health and Science University) — Principal investigator
First posted
May 30, 2011
Start date
Jul 2011
Primary completion
Jul 2015
Completion
Jul 2015
Results posted
Mar 20, 2020
Last update
Mar 20, 2020

Study contacts

Jennifer M Watters, MD
principal investigator · Oregon Health and Science University

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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