Acupressure may help children before they have surgery

Have you ever heard of acupressure? It’s quite similar to acupuncture but it doesn’t use needles. By using your fingers, you press on certain trigger points and this releases the muscular tension and promotes circulation.

Undergoing surgery is traumatic and especially so for children. While some surgeries may be done to relieve painful conditions, there are many situations where a child doesn’t have any pain but has to have surgery that results in pain during recovery. And, if a child has been through that before, the anticipation of the pain can be even more disturbing.

Doctors and nurses are aware of this problem and work hard to try to reduce the amount of stress and anxiety that children experience. Now, according to a study published in the September issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, acupressure applied to children who are going under anesthetic before surgery lowered anxiety levels.

You can read more about the study findings in this article, Acupressure Calms Children Before Surgery.

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Tags: chronic pain blog, pain blog, surgery, children having surgery, acupressure, acupuncture