Trial reportQJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians2025
Early acupuncture intervention for pain relief in emergency department patients with suspected acute renal colic caused by urinary calculi: a randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Therapeutic mechanisms of acupuncture therapy for acute pain in the emergency department.Integrative medicine research · 2026Review
- Immediate Analgesic Efficacy of Acupuncture in Acute Postoperative Pain Following Internal Fixation of Intertrochanteric Femoral Fractures: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRenal colic is one of the worst types of pain in acute renal colic caused by urinary calculi (ARCUC). We previously proved that acupuncture can alleviate the pain in ARCUC patients, but its effect on suspected ARCUC remains unclear.
objectiveThe objective was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in patients with suspected ARCUC.
aimThis prospective, double-blind, sham acupuncture-controlled, randomized clinical trial was conducted from July 2021 to June 2024 in an emergency department in China.
methodsThe patients immediately received acupuncture treatment or sham acupuncture treatment after randomization. The primary outcome was the response rate at 10 minutes (pain relief rate) after needle manipulation. The secondary outcomes included the response rates at 0, 5, 15, 20 and 30 minutes, trends in the numerical rating scale score over time, patient satisfaction, the analgesic injection rate at 30 minutes, the surgical intervention rate, the revisit rate and the occurrence of adverse events.
resultsThis trial enrolled 84 participants with suspected ARCUC patients, who immediately received acupuncture treatment or sham treatment after randomization. The pain response rates at 10 minutes were 64.3% and 16.7% in the acupuncture group and sham group, respectively, and the difference between the groups was 47.6% (95% CI, 29.3-66%; P < 0.01). The response rates of acupuncture were also significantly higher than those of sham acupuncture at 0, 5, 15, 20 and 30 minutes.
conclusionsThese results suggest that acupuncture could alleviate the pain in patients with suspected ARCUC safely.
trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry: ChiCTR2100049069.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.