Auricular Acupuncture as a Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapy for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Combined with Sleep Disorders

Summary

This protocol introduces an effective method to improve the sleep condition of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and alleviate cough symptoms by using auricular acupuncture techniques to percutaneously stimulate specific acupoints in the patients' ears.

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a clinical syndrome characterized by persistent and irreversible airflow limitation and chronic respiratory symptoms. It has a wide spectrum of complications, and sleep disorders, as part of it, are common in severe cases, especially in elderly patients. Long-term lack of sleep may lead to the aggravation of the original disease, reducing patients' quality of life. Benzodiazepines are mainly used for symptomatic treatment of COPD combined with sleep disorders. However, such drugs have the side effect of respiratory central inhibition and could probably aggravate hypoxia symptoms. Auricular acupuncture is a special method of treating physical and psychosomatic dysfunctions by stimulating specific points in the ear. This article explains the specific methods of clinical operation of auricular acupuncture in detail, including assessment of patient eligibility, medical devices used, acupuncture points, course of treatment, post-treatment care, responses to emergencies, etc. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assessment scale (CAT) were used as the observational index of this method. So far, clinical reports have proved that auricular acupuncture has a definite curative effect in the treatment of COPD combined with sleep disorders, and its advantages of simple operation, few adverse reactions are worthy of further study and promotion, which provide a reference for the clinical treatment of such diseases.

Introduction

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous lung condition characterized by chronic respiratory symptoms (dyspnea, cough, sputum production, exacerbations) due to abnormalities of the airways (bronchitis, bronchiolitis) and/or alveoli (emphysema) that cause persistent, often progressive, airflow obstruction¹. Its rate of incidence is closely related to individual factors like age, gender, genetics, and environmental factors such as smoking, air pollution, occupational dust, etc². In recent years, COPD has represented a significant public health challenge and has gradually become one of the three cause....

Protocol

This is a before-and-after self-controlled trial with patients sourced from the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The protocol has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Hospital of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Record NO.KY2022007). Patients were informed about the purpose and process of the study and agreed to the use of images and videos during the experiment.

1. Pre-treatment evaluation.......

Discussion

As an ancient Chinese traditional treatment modality, the efficacy of auricular acupuncture has been tested throughout its long history of development, and the results of various studies in recent years have further demonstrated the independent effectiveness of auricular acupuncture in improving sleep quality in patients with insomnia, relieving symptoms and improving lung function in patients with COPD. The efficacy of the method is mainly dependent on the acupoints chosen. Studies by Runyuan Ren²³

Materials

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Cotton swab	Qingdao Hainuo Biological Engineering Co., Ltd.	20182640215
Iodophor cotton balls	Qingdao Hainuo Biological Engineering Co., Ltd.	20172140782
Press needle	Suzhou Acupuncture & Moxibustion APPLIANCE Co., Ltd.	20162200591
Surgical skin marker	Dongguan Tondaus Meditech Co., Ltd.	20202021011
Tweezers	Yangzhou Guilong Medical Devices Co., Ltd.	20182010440