Research Article An Evaluation of Electroacupuncture at the Weizhong Acupoint (BL-40) as a Means of Relieving Pain Induced by Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy Wei-Ta Chen, 1 Fang-Chia Chang, 2 Yi-Hung Chen, 3 and Jaung-Geng Lin 4 1 Department of Chinese Medicine, Taiwan Landseed Hospital, No. 77, Kwang-Tai Road, Ping-jen City, Tao-Yuan County 32405, Taiwan 2 Department of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan 3 Graduate Institute of Acupuncture Science, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung 40402, Taiwan 4 School of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung 40402, Taiwan Correspondence should be addressed to Jaung-Geng Lin; jglin@mail.cmu.edu.tw Received 15 April 2014; Accepted 18 June 2014; Published 23 July 2014 Academic Editor: Xinyan Gao Copyright © 2014 Wei-Ta Chen et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is the preferred option for urolithiasis treatment. However, intensities of pain may be induced and the sedative anesthetic or analgesics were usually needed. he aim of this study was to develop an improved acupuncture-assisted anesthesia approach in pain relief. Methods. We conducted a single-blind, randomized controlled study in China Medical University Hospital. Patients treated by ESWL due to upper urolithiasis were randomly divided into control group, sham-EA group, and 100 Hz EA group. he high frequency electroacupuncture (EA) was applied at the Weizhong acupoint (100Hz EA group) for 20 minutes prior to the ESWL. In the sham-EA group, the same procedures were performed as those of 100 Hz EA group but no electric current was given to stimulate the acupoints. In the control group, no action was taken before operation. he information including the numbers and dosage of analgesic requirements, pain score, vital signs, and the satisfaction of procedure was collected. Results. A total of 74 subjects were recruited and we found that the interval to the irst request analgesic, the number/total dosage of additional analgesic, recovery time from anesthesia, and the satisfaction were all better in both the 100 Hz EA and the sham-EA group. he 100 Hz EA also showed better relief of painful sensations by delaying the onset of pain. Conclusions. he 100 Hz EA and the sham-EA can efectively relieve pain due to ESWL as well as reducing the dosage of opium analgesic used. 1. Introduction Urolithiasis is one of the most commonly diagnosed diseases of the urinary system, and the prevalence rate in Taiwan is as high as 9%. his rate is showing a very signiicant increase with time [1]. he causes of urolithiasis can be quite varied and complicated; normally, it is classiied based on either an external or an internal origin. External origins refer to environmental factors such as geographic distribution, climate, season, water uptake, diet, and occupation. Internal origins refer to congenital biochemical factors (physiological characters) or anatomic characteristics such as heredity, age, and gender [1, 2]. At present, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is the preferred option for the treatment of upper urolithiasis. he strength of the electrical shock wave when the development of lithotripsy was at an early stage tended to be stronger and this caused perceptible pain for patients; as a consequence, general anesthesia, spinal cord, or epidural anesthesia was oten performed [3, 4]. In recent years, the development of new lithotripter models and a trend towards outpatient lithotripsy has resulted in lithotripsy moving toward being a painless treatment. his is because patients tend to beneit from a better and faster postoperational recovery in such circumstances. his trend has also been helped by better and more diversiied sedative and anesthetic techniques [4]. It is anticipated that the improvements in anesthetic technology and the enhance- ment of the lithotripsy apparatus will substantially reduce Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2014, Article ID 592319, 8 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/592319