Poster Session
Objective: to assess the effectiveness of acupressure compared to standard treatment in women with hyperemesis gravidarum. Design: This is a randomized controlled trial conducted for a period of 6 months. Settings: Antenatal clinic and ward in Department of Obstetrics and Gyneacology, UKM Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Patient(s): 90 women with a normal intrauterine pregnancy of less than 16 weeks of gestation who presented with severe nausea and vomiting (NVP). They were randomized into two groups, which were acupressure group (n=45) and control group (n=45). Women in the control group received regular doses of an intravascular antiemetic. Both groups received intravenous fluid as per hospital protocol and the degree of NVP was measured by Modified Pregnancy Unique Quantification of Emesis and Nausea (PUQE) score. Intervention(s): Acupressure group were given an acupressure wristband to apply at their P6 point and antiemetic medication will be added on if NVP did not reduce. Result(s): The mean age of the study sample was 30.9 ± 4.3 year-old with mean gestational age of 10.08 ± 2.5 weeks. During admission, there was no significant difference between both groups in terms of modified PUQE score and urine ketone. Acupressure group demonstrated a statistically significant improvement of modified PUQE score at 8 hours, 16 hours and 24 hours (p=0.001, p=0.006, p=0.001) compared with control group. In acupressure group, 26.7% women did not require antiemetic. The requirement of antiemetic less than 2 doses was significantly different between acupressure and control group (36 vs 0, p= 0.001). Women in acupressure group took significant shorter time (hours) to achieved negative urine ketone compared to control group (21.7 vs 27.7, p=0.022). Conclusion(s): The use of acupressure wristband at the P6 point was able to reduce the severity of NVP in women with hyperemesis gravidarum. Hence, it reduced the requirement of pharmacological therapy as well as duration to achieve negative urine ketone.