Effect of Early-Intervention Acupuncture on Pain Relief Among Emergency Department Patients with Suspected Acute Renal Colic Due to Urinary Calculi: Study Protocol for a Randomized Clinical Trial

Introduction: Analgesia is often delayed for suspected acute renal colic due to urinary calculi (ARCUC) even in emergency department. Acupuncture has a rapid onset and is effective for analgesia, however, evidence about early-acupuncture for suspected ARCUC is limited. This trial aims to evaluate the efficacy of early-intervention acupuncture compared with sham acupuncture on pain relief among emergency department suspected ARCUC patients.

Methods and analysis: A total of 84 eligible patients who are suspected diagnosed with ARCUC will be randomly allocated to the acupuncture group or the sham acupuncture group. Each patient will receive 1 session of acupuncture or sham acupuncture before diagnostic imaging. The primary outcome will be the response rate at 10 min after needle manipulation, defined as the proportion of patients whose Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) score decrease by at least 50% from baseline. Secondary outcomes will include pain intensity assessed by NRS, further analgesia requirement, revisit rate, surgical intervention rate, satisfaction evaluation, and adverse events. The final diagnosis rate determined by radiography will be recorded and reported. All patients who receive randomization will be included in the intention-to-treat analysis.

Conclusion: This study's findings are anticipated to evaluate the analgesic effect of early-intervention acupuncture for acute renal colic in emergency department, which could be useful for moving the timing of analgesia forward and aligning pain management for acute renal colic more with the guidelines.

Trial registration number: ChiCTR2100049069 (https://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=125338).