Objective: This study aimed to observe the effects of acupuncture for hot flashes in postmenopausal hemodialysis-dependent women.
Methods: Two postmenopausal hemodialysis-dependent women were treated with individualized manual acupuncture for 1 and 3 months to reduce the occurrence of hot flashes and were observed through 7 and 11 months, respectively, from baseline.
Results: Hot flashes were significantly improved after acupuncture treatment in both of the patients, and the effects persisted through the final observation period (hot flash scores decreased from 57 to 33 and 22 at 1 and 11 months from baseline in patient 1, and from 14 to 6 and zero at 1 and 7 months from baseline in patient 2). The beneficial effects of acupuncture on quality of life were partially observed in these 2 patients. No acupuncture-related serious adverse events occurred during the study.
Conclusions: Further controlled studies need to be conducted among larger samples to determine whether acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment for hot flashes in postmenopausal hemodialysis-dependent women.