Injecting Dexamethasone At Zusanli Point For Preventing Adverse Reactions Of Chemotherapy:a Prospective Randomized Controlled Trial

Objective: To evaluate the effects of injecting dexamethasone at zusanli point (ST36) during chemotherapy to reduce bone marrow suppression and prevent nausea andvomiting by the prospective randomized controlled trial. Furthermore, the objective isalso to observe its impact on the patients’ quality of life and check the security oftreatment.Methods: A total of77patients were participated in this trial. And they were treatedby chemotherapy during January2013and January2014at the Gynecology Departmentfor Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changhai Hospital, Second Military MedicalUniversity, Shanghai, China. All of them were randomly divided into the treatment groupand control group. All of the patients before treatment were signed informed consent.The treatment group (n=37) underwent injecting dexamethasone5mg at zusanli point(ST36) from the first chemotherapy day for3days. Whereas the control group (n=40)were injecting saline at the same point. Compare the degrees of bone marrow suppressionbetween the two groups after chemotherapy. At the same time, the degrees of nausea andvomiting and other adverse reactions were observed. Then patients post-chemotherapywere followed up after1week,2weeks, and1month to record the degrees of bonemarrow suppression. The quality of patients’ life was evaluated by MDASI and EORTCQLQ-C30lists.Results:(1) The degrees of bone marrow suppression after chemotherapy: thecomparison between the2groups in bone marrow suppression degree difference hadstatistics significance, P <0.05. And for each layer, the incidence rate of bone marrowsuppression in treatment group was significantly not lower than that in control group, P≥0.05.43patients were followed up totally. There was no significant statistical differencebetween the two groups of follow-up patients about the degrees of bone marrowsuppression after1week,2weeks, and1month, P≥0.05.(2) Nausea: no obviousdifference of the nausea degrees was found between two groups of patients at1st day.However, the nausea degrees between treatment group and control group hadsignificantly statistical difference in the other days, P <0.01. Furthermore, the incidencerate of nausea of treatment group was significantly lower than control group from the2ndto5th day.(3) Vomiting: From the2nd to4th day, the comparison of the vomitingdegrees between the two groups had significantly statistical difference, P <0.01. And the incidence rate of vomiting of treatment group was significantly lower than control groupfrom the2nd to4th day, too.(4) The MDASI list: comparing the symptoms’ scores oftwo groups after chemotherapy, statistical differences could be found in the items offatigue, disturbed sleep and sleepy, P <0.05. And the statistical difference wassignificantly in the items of nausea, upset, poor appetite and vomiting, P <0.01.(5)QLQ-C30list: the quality of life of the43followed-up patients had not shown significantdifference before and1month after the chemotherapy, P≥0.05.(6) Adverse reactions:during the period of chemotherapy, in addition to a small number of patients withconstipation, blood glucose, blood pressure, there was no other serious adverse reactions.The treatment group and control group had no significant statistical difference betweeneach other.Conclusion: Synchronous rejecting dexamethasone at zusanli point (ST36) duringchemotherapy can reduce bone marrow suppression after chemotherapy. At the sametime, it could prevent the chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting and improvepatient’s quality of life around the time of chemotherapy. Furthermore, it has the highsafety and no obvious side effects.