Effectiveness of Acupuncture on Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients Receiving Maintenance Hemodialysis

Abstract

Patients with kidney failure (KF) receiving maintenance hemodialysis (HD) experience numerous symptoms that impair their health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and contribute to high mortality rates. Acupuncture is often used for symptom enhancement and HRQOL. This blinded, randomized, controlled patient-assessor trial evaluated the effectiveness of acupuncture compared with sham acupuncture on patients’ HRQOL receiving maintenance HD as a secondary analysis. Seventy-two participants were randomly assigned to verum acupuncture (VA), sham acupuncture (SA), or waiting-list (WL) groups. The outcome was an improvement in HRQOL, assessed using the Kidney Disease Quality of Life—Short Form, version 1.3 (KDQOL-SF™ v1.3) at baseline, after treatment, and at 12-week follow-up. Non-parametric tests were used for statistical analysis. Of the 72 randomized patients, 67 were included in the complete analysis set. As for the changes between baseline and after treatment, the VA group showed significantly increased scores on most of the KDQOL-SF™ v1.3 scales compared to SA or WL groups (p < 0.05). No statistically significant differences between groups were observed in the changes from baseline to follow-up (p > 0.05). Compared to the sham treatment, acupuncture improved the HRQOL in patients receiving maintenance HD after treatment but not at follow-up.

Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Pain Management in Hemodialysis: A Narrative Review

“…Similarly, another study was conducted by Bullen et al [18] on 101 patients with end-stage renal disease, but this time acupuncture was associated with a massage procedure. The conclusion of this study was an improvement in the overall healthrelated quality of life of the 101 patients, which is confirmed by a new study that revealed that acupuncture was found to enhance the health-related quality of life in individuals undergoing maintenance hemodialysis following their treatment [19]. In addition, a study by Tsai et al [20] focused on the impact of acupuncture on the reduction of restless leg syndrome (RLS) in hemodialysis patients.…”

“…Five principal strategies were identified. Among these, acupuncture demonstrated considerable promise as a benign and efficacious supplementary therapy for managing pain, enhancing functional capacity and muscular strength, lessening symptoms of restless leg syndrome and uremic pruritus, and bettering the QOL of patients on hemodialysis [ 13 , 19 ]. Nonetheless, additional investigations are imperative to confirm these results and define the ideal parameters for treatment.…”

Therapeutic effects of acupuncture therapy for kidney function and common symptoms in patients with chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Similarly, the small amount of data and high risk of bias for other symptomatic outcomes make it impossible to draw definitive conclusions. Three studies reported positive results of acupuncture therapy for quality of life [ 34 , 48 , 52 ], which may be related to the prognosis of acupuncture for relief of CKD-related symptoms; after all, symptom distress is strongly and negatively associated with quality of life in CKD patients [ 4 ].…”

Integrating Acupuncture into a Dialysis Center

“…The effectiveness of acupuncture was assessed by scrutinizing the overall results described in a previous RCT [20,21]. The group that received verum acupuncture (VA) demonstrated better results, compared to the group that received sham (SA) acupuncture and a control group.…”

“…Our prior studies evaluated the impacts of acupuncture on the functional capacity (FC) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD), pointing to the possibility of integrating this practice during HD sessions [20,21]. Given the promising results obtained and the limited number of national studies in this field, this paper aims to assess the opinions and perceptions of patients and health professionals regarding the acceptance of incorporating acupuncture as an integrative approach in the context of a Portuguese health services and conventional medicine.…”