Acupuncture Versus Intravenous Morphine in the Management of Acute Pain in the Emergency Department

Acupuncture session of 20 to 30 minutes. Treatment protocols were determined through review of major clinical manuals and textbooks, literature review, and a panel of specialist acupuncturists from Chinese medicine backgrounds.

Patients in this group received IV titrated morphine. Morphine was prepared onsite and diluted in a manner to obtain a dose of 1mg in each ml of normal saline. The initial dose was 0.1 mg per kg and a titration dose of 0.05 mg per Kg was repeated every 5 minutes until reaching objective. The maximum allowed dose was 1.5 mg/kg.