The efficacy of auricular acupressure combined with emotional freedom techniques on the postoperative pain and anxiety state of patients with lower limb fractures: A randomized clinical controlled trial

Randomized trial👥 99 participants⚖️ vs. routine care; routine care plus auricular acupressure aloneModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 China

In plain English. Ninety-nine patients recovering from lower-limb fracture surgery in China were split into three groups: routine care, routine care plus ear acupressure, or routine care plus ear acupressure and EFT tapping. The group that got both ear acupressure and tapping had the least pain in the two days after surgery and the lowest anxiety three days out. Because EFT was combined with acupressure rather than tested alone, it's not possible to say how much tapping itself contributed versus the acupressure.

What they found

people took part

The combined auricular acupressure plus EFT group had significantly lower VAS pain scores at 4, 12, 24, and 48 hours post-intervention and lower anxiety scores at 72 hours than the acupressure-only or control groups (P < .05).

How the study worked

Who took partpostoperative patients with lower limb fractures (n=99)

What they didIn a randomized controlled trial, participants were randomly assigned to receive tapping or a comparison condition, then measured and compared.

Compared withroutine care; routine care plus auricular acupressure alone

Measured withVisual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS)

💡 Where this could help

Picture someone recovering from a broken leg, in pain and anxious, in a hospital system trying to reduce reliance on opioids for pain control. If tapping's contribution here is confirmed, it could become part of a lower-risk, non-drug toolkit patients can self-administer during recovery — something they keep using at home long after discharge, with no prescription or follow-up visit required.

🔬 What to study next

With opioid reduction as a real hospital priority, the next trial should track actual analgesic and opioid consumption alongside VAS pain scores, not just self-report — a much harder, more convincing number for a surgical ward to act on. Post-surgical inflammatory markers (CRP, IL-6) and heart-rate variability could reveal whether the combined acupressure-and-tapping approach is dampening the body's stress and pain-signaling response, not merely the patient's perception of it. A dose-response comparison — tapping alone vs. combined with acupressure vs. acupressure alone — would also clarify how much tapping itself is contributing.

The full record

Design	Randomized trial
Participants	99 people
Population	postoperative patients with lower limb fractures
Comparison group	routine care; routine care plus auricular acupressure alone
Outcome measures	Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain, Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS)
Journal	Medicine
Year	2025
Country	China
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Zhou, X., Zhang, G., Chen, D., Yao, H., & Wang, Q. (2025). The efficacy of auricular acupressure combined with emotional freedom techniques on the postoperative pain and anxiety state of patients with lower limb fractures: A randomized clinical controlled trial. Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000041401

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on Pain · Anxiety