Clinical Studies Of Low Frequency Electro-acupuncture Stimulation To Improve Success Rate Of Unarmed Nasointestinal Tube Intubation

Objective:We aim to take the advantage of TCM electro-acupuncture in order to make up for the inadequacy of methods of nasointestinal tube intubation, to reduce risk while improving the clinical success rate of nasointestinal tube, to speed up the creeping rate of the tube passing through the pylorus, and to reduce the incidence of gastrointestinal complications after intubating.Methods:Prospective, randomized, controlled research method was used. We selected58cases of patients, who were sent to ICU and met the relevant experimental standard from January2013to March2014,of whom33were male,25were female. According to their admission time, they were divided into the experimental group and the control group by method of random number. The nasointestinal tube were unarmed placed into the stomach bedside both in the experimental group and control group. Intravenous drug was taken (every12hours after intubating) to promote gastrointestinal motility after confirming the section position by the abdominal plain film. Experimental group on the basis of the control group implement low-frequency electro-acupuncture stimulation instantly on bilateral Zusanli point and Shangjuxu point after each bolus injection of metoclopramide. The abdominal plain film were examined every24hours after intubating in order to affirm the tip of the tube, making sure whether the pipeline discounted. Success criteria was the tube could be successfully intubated within72hours and could provide enteral nutrition through the nasointestinal tube into the intestine. If the nasointestinal tube could not pass through the pylorus within72hours, another approach should be taken to the failed ones, and those were not included in the experiment. We mainly observed the success rate of two groups, Apart from this, the speed of nasointestinal tube creeping in the intestine and the incidence of gastrointestinal complications were also be observed. Experimental data were analyzed using SPSS18.0statistical software package, measurement data using t test, count data using the chi-square test. P<0.05was considered statistically significant.Results:58patients have all completed the experimental studies, the experi-mental group consists of32patients, and the control group was26cases. Before the experiment, the difference of sex composition ratio, age, APACHE Ⅱ score and other index between the two groups showed no statistical significance (P>0.05). Analysis showed that the success rate of the two groups had no significant difference within24hours after intubating. But the overall success rate within48hours and72hours was higher in experimental group. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between the two groups’on gastrointestinal propulsion depth of the nasointestinal tube cutting edge during the first24hours and48hours, But in total72hours, there was statistical significance. No serious complications happened during intubating in two groups. And the incidence of vomiting, reflux and aspiration, gastric retention, gastrointestinal bleeding, intestinal bloating, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal complications between the two groups had no obvious difference (P>0.05), however, the incidence of intestinal bloating relatively less in experimental group.ConclusionLow-frequency electro-acupuncture stimulation of Zusanli point and Shangjuxu point, with electrical stimulation frequency increases and the total electric acupuncture time prolonged,by enhancing gastrointestinal motility, promoting the tube passing through the pylorus, thus improving the success rate of intubation, And accelerated the rate of nasointestinal tube creeping in the intestine, and to some extent, reduced the incidence of intestinal bloating.