High Feasibility and Safety, but Negligible Efficacy of Acupressure for Treating Nausea in Cancer Patients Admitted to the Palliative Care Unit: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Management of nausea is an important dimension of palliative care. The first choice for treating nausea is antiemetics, but their efficacy is inadequate. Acupressure intervention for nausea in cancer patients has been studied as a non-pharmacological therapy, and appears to have had some effect. However, such a therapy has not been well reviewed in patients with terminal cancer. The purpose of this study was to clarify the feasibility of acupressure intervention and examine its safety and preliminary efficacy. We recruited cancer patients that fulfilled the eligibility criteria and were admitted to the palliative care unit, from August 2018 to February 2019, in Tohoku University Hospital, Japan. We conducted a longitudinal assessment of acupressure intervention in a single arm. We identified the patient's research accomplishments and evaluated possible fainting due to the vagal reflex and symptom severity. Descriptive statistics were used to calculate the completion rate for the feasibility and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests to compare the average of continuous variables for the safety and efficacy. Twelve patients participated in this study and completed the procedure. Their average age was 70 years (SD = 9.3), and the most common primary cancer sites were the rectum and pancreas. The blood pressure and pulse rate did not drop sharply. Four patients exhibited decreased nausea but there was no statistically significant difference (P = 0.5). We suggested that acupressure has high feasibility and safety, as an intervention for patients with terminal cancer. However, no significant differences were observed regarding its effect on nausea.

The effect of digital acupressure on chemotherapy-induced nausea in Indonesian patients with stages III-IV breast cancer

“…Likewise, multiple studies have shown that auricular acupressure (AA) can effectively reduce the incidence and severity of acute CINV in patients with breast cancer [ 22 , 23 ]. Together, our study strengthens the previous notion [ [4] , [5] , [6] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] ] (15/20 studies show a positive impact of acupressure on reducing nausea in patients with cancer, listed in Table 5 ) that acupressure at P6 and/or ST36 are effective in reducing acute CIN for breast cancer patients. Despite a positive finding, it is important to note that several reports indicate that acupressure may not be effective in relieving CINV ( Table 5 ) [ 4 , 13 , 24 , 29 , 32 ].…”

“…Together, our study strengthens the previous notion [ [4] , [5] , [6] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [24] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , [33] , [34] ] (15/20 studies show a positive impact of acupressure on reducing nausea in patients with cancer, listed in Table 5 ) that acupressure at P6 and/or ST36 are effective in reducing acute CIN for breast cancer patients. Despite a positive finding, it is important to note that several reports indicate that acupressure may not be effective in relieving CINV ( Table 5 ) [ 4 , 13 , 24 , 29 , 32 ]. However, it is crucial to consider that these studies often recruited non-homogeneous subsets of participants who may have varied responses to acupressure treatments and thus influence the overall findings of the study.…”

Nursing Support for Nausea and Vomiting in Patients With Cancer: A Scoping Review

“…After removing the duplicate articles, we reviewed the titles and abstracts of 4,273 articles. This resulted in 58 articles being eligible for full-text review, of which 10 met the selection criteria [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The agreement rate between the reviewers was 82.8% (48/58).…”

Penerapan Akupresur dalam Mengurangi Mual Muntah pada Pasien Kanker dengan Kemoterapi

“…CINV masih memiliki dampak yang tinggi pada berbagai aspek kualitas hidup (Ilyas et al, 2020). Keadaan mual muntah yang tidak terkendali dapat menyebabkan ketidakseimbangan cairan elektrolit, dehidrasi, anoreksia dan penurunan berat badan (Tsugita et al, 2021).…”