Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation for Prevention of Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting

Postoperative nausea and vomiting(PONV) refers to at least one nausea, retching or vomiting after operation, or any combination of the above symptoms. The incidence of PONV in high-risk patients can reach 61%-79%. PONV can not only cause dizziness and headache, but also cause disturbance of acid-base balance of water and electrolyte, wound dehiscence, formation of incisional hernia, aspiration, and aspiration pneumonia, leading to prolonged hospitalization, increased medical expenses, and reduced surgical satisfaction. At present, the guidelines for prevention and treatment of PONV and the consensus of experts suggest that identifying high-risk patients according to Apfel risk score ≥3 points, reducing baseline PONV risks, and implementing multimodal PONV prophylaxis. However, the incidence of PONV in high-risk patients is still as high as 20% even if 2-3 drugs are combined used for prevention and treatment. It is difficult to further reduce the incidence of PONV by adding different kinds or dosages of drugs, while drug-related side effects are increasing gradually. Acupuncture (electroacupuncture, transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulationTEAS, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, etc.) is a safe, effective, non-toxic side-effect non-drug treatment method. A large number of studies have confirmed that acupuncture can reduce the incidence of PONV, and it is expected to become an important supplement to drug treatment of PONV, but there are quality defects such as small sample size, inaccurate intervention and so on. At the same time, most acupuncture studies aim to compare the efficacy of PONV with drug therapy, without considering the clinical situation, using acupuncture treatment based on drug standard treatment to further reduce the incidence of PONV, thus limiting the clinical application value of acupuncture. On the basis of standardized drug prevention and treatment of PONV, TEAS will be used to further reduce the incidence of PONV and promote rap