Clinicians at a specialist joint replacement centre in Minnesota, USA report that acupuncture seems to be a useful adjunct to drugs to control pain following total hip or knee replacement. Data from a sample of 2500 patients who were offered postsurgical acupuncture alongside the usual opioid drugs, showed an average 45% reduction in short-term pain. In fact 41% of the patients had been in moderate to severe pain prior to acupuncture, and this fell to only 15% after acupuncture.
(Acupuncture provides short-term pain relief for patients in a total joint replacement program. Pain Medicine, June 2015.