KEY POINTS:
North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals may be high-tech, but their emergency departments have started using ancient acupuncture techniques as pain relief.
The busy, modern departments began trials of ear acupuncture on patients with hip and arm injuries in January.
The woman in charge of the study, Waitemata District Health Board director of emergency medicine research Dr Kim Yates, said the trial - the first of its kind in New Zealand - was part of ongoing efforts to improve pain relief for emergency patients.
Acupuncture has been used to treat pain for thousands of years, but few studies have been made into whether it is helpful in the emergency department.
The Waitemata study uses ear acupuncture as it is more practical in the emergency department setting.
"Scientists don't really know exactly how acupuncture works," Dr Yates said. "But the body does have natural morphine-like pain relievers, and international studies suggest the [acupuncture] needles trigger these pathways."
"We believe body and ear acupuncture is helpful in some settings, and for some people, but we want to find out whether ear acupuncture helps pain and anxiety in the emergency department setting, when performed by ED staff who know a limited number of set points for certain conditions."
The Waitemata District Health Board study will look specifically at the effectiveness of ear acupuncture on patients with hip and arm injuries.
The health board needs 138 patients for the trial: 69 with hip injuries and 69 with arm injuries.
It will continue for at least six months, until there are enough patients involved to allow the data to be analysed.
