Efficacy and Cost Effectiveness of Three CAM Therapies on Wound Healing: Acupuncture, Probiotics, and Intentional Comfort Touch

Efficacy and Cost Effectiveness of Three CAM Therapies on Wound Healing: Acupuncture, Probiotics, and Intentional Comfort Touch Jacquelyn Alderson Research Advisor: Dr. Young-Me Lee, PhD, RN Background: Wound healing is a pervasive medical and economic issue, and increasing the speed of healing would augment financial and physical quality of life on personal and global levels. Current medical treatments can be costly and time consuming, however, so complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies may provide a way to enhance the speed and efficacy of wound healing without an excessive financial burden on the patient and the healthcare system. Objective: This literature review aims to synthesize the research on acupuncture, probiotics, and intentional comfort touch on wound healing by answering the following research question: “Of the three CAM therapies, which has the best cost-effectiveness and best reported health outcome of enhanced wound healing?” Methods: Articles were found using the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), WorldCat, ProQuest, PubMed, PsycInfo, ScienceDirect, and MedLinePlus databases, using various combinations of the terms wound, wound healing, wound care, probiotics, probiotic therapy, acupuncture, complementary alternative medicine, CAM, reiki, massage, intentional comfort touch, touch, and oxytocin. Studies included in the integrative literature review were academic articles, peer reviewed, included qualitative data or information from mammalian subjects, written in English, published between the years of 2009 and 2018, and fully accessible through the internet. Results: All of the articles addressed the speed of wound healing, but none addressed the cost of training healthcare professionals to learn and implement the individual CAM therapies. Also absent from the literature were related costs of recovering in a hospital, as well as health-related sequelae of a hospital stay with or without CAM therapy. Only one article addressed length of hospital stay. Conclusion: All three therapies enhanced the speed of wound healing, one discussed a shortened hospital stay, and none analyzed related costs. Also, because more articles provided qualitative data regarding probiotic treatment, it appears that topical or ingested probiotic treatment was the most successful in accelerating the speed of wound healing. A larger quantity of articles to compare in the future could prove otherwise. Keywords: wound, healing, wound care, probiotics, probiotic therapy, acupuncture, complementary alternative medicine, CAM, reiki, massage, intentional comfort touch, oxytoci