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Objective: To determine whether a combination of auricular and body acupuncture is effective as an adjunct for the preprocedural anxiety and pain management in patients undergoing lithotripsy procedures.

Design: Randomized controlled study.

Setting and Location: Lithotripsy suite located at the Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven CT.

Subjects: Adult patients who were scheduled to receive elective lithotripsy procedures.

Interventions: Acupuncture group: Preprocedural auricular acupuncture intervention combined with intraprocedural electroacupuncture stimulation (n = 29); Sham control group: Preprocedural sham auricular acupuncture intervention combined with intraprocedural sham electroacupuncture stimulation (n = 27).

Outcomes measurement: Preprocedural anxiety, intraprocedural alfentanil consumption, visual analogue scale for pain.

Results: Patients in the acupuncture group were less anxious preprocedure than those in the Sham Control Group 32 (29–34) versus 40 (35–45) (p = 0.029). Similarly, patients in the Acupuncture Group used a lesser amount of alfentanil than those in the sham control group (p = 0.040). The adjustable alfentanil consumption as expressed by median rate of alfentanil consumption of 1 (0.6–1.6) μg kg¹ minute¹ in the acupuncture group was lower than that of 1.5 (0.9–2.3) μ g kg¹ minute¹ in the sham control group. Patients in the Acupuncture group also reported lower pain scores on admission to the recovery room (p = 0.014).

Conclusions: A combination of auricular and body acupuncture can be used as an adjunct treatment to decrease preprocedural anxiety and intraprocedural analgesia in patients undergoing lithotripsy.