Effects of acupuncture at Pericardium-6 and Stomach-36 on nausea, sedation and gastrointestinal motility in healthy dogs administered intravenous lidocaine infusions

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to assess gastrointestinal transit times, sedation, and signs of nausea associated with intravenous lidocaine infusions in dogs following targeted acupuncture at Pericardium-6 (PC6) and Stomach-36 (ST36). In a randomized, blind crossover design, 6 healthy, adult Beagles were fed thirty 1.5 mm barium-impregnated polyethylene spheres (BIPS), then were subject to 30 minutes of: 1) no acupuncture, 2) bilateral targeted acupuncture at PC6 and ST36, or 3) bilateral non-target acupuncture at Lung-5 (LU5) and Bladder-55 (BL55). Lidocaine was immediately administered at 1 mg/kg intravenously followed by 50 μg/kg/min. BIPS were tracked radiographically; sedation and nausea were scored at baseline (Time 0) and for 11 hours during lidocaine infusions. Transit times and sedation and nausea scores were analyzed with a linear mixed-effects model; the number of BIPS at defined time points was analyzed with a piecewise linear mixed-effects model. All P values were two-sided and P < 0.05 was considered significant. Sedation and nausea scores did not differ between treatments at any time point (all P > 0.05). However, nausea scores in all groups were significantly greater at Times 5 through 7 and at Time 11 compared to Time 0 whereas sedation scores in all groups were significantly greater at Times 2 through 11 compared to Time 0 (all P < 0.05). The number of BIPs found out of the stomach, the number found in the large intestine, gastric emptying and gastrointestinal transit times did not differ between treatments (all P > 0.05). Acupuncture at PC6 and ST36 did not alleviate nausea and sedation associated with lidocaine infusions in clinically normal animals or affect gastric emptying and gastrointestinal transit.

Comprehensive Investigation on Acupuncture at ST-36 (Zusanli), SP-6 (Sanyinjiao) and PC-6 (Neiguan) in Veterinary Studies

“…Results indicated the efficacy of PC-6 acutherapy in reducing the number of vomiting and retching events as well as preventing an increase in severity of nausea following morphine administration. In contrast, in a more recent study, manual acupuncture at PC6 and ST36 did not alleviate nausea associated with lidocaine infusions in clinically normal dogs [119].…”

Vibrational and Laser Acupuncture of Gv20 and Yintang as Sedative Adjuvant in Xylazine Sedated Dogs

“…In related studies, the sedative effect of pharmacopuncture with micro doses of xylazine (Cassu et al, 2014) and acepromazine (Sousa, 2015) has been investigated and compared to conventional high doses. In these studies, 1/10 of the IM dose of xylazine (1mg/kg) and acepromazine (0.05 mg/kg) has been injected at Yintang point.…”

“…For this, in the present study, in XLL and XLV groups, 1/4 rather than 1/10 of the conventional intravenous dose of xylazine (given in XH group) was given along with laser and vibrational acupuncture as an attempt to achieve comparable sedation to that produced by high xylazine dose in XH group. Further, in our study, laser and vibrational acupuncture was implemented at two acupuncture points, GV20 and Yintang rather than Yintang alone as in previous studies (Cassu et al, 2014;Sousa, 2015). This was selected as the clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment has been greatly improved by synergistic and complementary effects produced by compatibility of different acupoints (Yang et al, 2021).…”

“…The greater efficacy of laser acupuncture could be also ascertained by prolonged sedation demonstrated in XLL group not in XLV group than XL group. The variable potency of these acupuncture modalities could be explained by the inherent characteristics of each acupuncture method (Sousa, 2015).…”

Genome‐Wide Regulation of Electroacupuncture and Treadmill Exercise on Diet‐Induced Obese Rats

“…High-fat food is the main environmental factor leading to simple obesity; therefore, this model simulates the physiological changes in obese patients. For acupoints selection, studies show that ST36 can regulate multiple systems, such as the digestive system, immune system, and endocrine system [ 28 , 29 ]. In addition, ST36 is a classical acupoint for obesity treatment in experimental studies.…”