Background: Hemodialysis is a most common treatment option available for chronic kidney disease patients. End-stage renal disease is known to be related with peripheral neuropathy that includes different presentations such as sensory symptoms. Because of limited and indefinite therapeutic methods, this study was done by the aim of evaluating the effect of acupuncture on sensory uremia neuropathy in hemodialysis patients. Methods: This multi centered randomized clinical trial was conducted during 2015 – 2017 in hemodialysis wards of academic hospitals, Mashhad – Iran. 30 patients that met inclusion criteria were entered the study by convenience sampling and were randomized in two groups, one group was acupuncture intervention and the other was control group received sham acupuncture. We measured VAS score of neuropathy before and after intervention in 2 groups. Results: The mean age of participants was 49.04 ± 14.93 with a minimum age of 23 years and maximum age of 65 years and 17 (65.40%) patients were male and 9 (34.60%) patients were female. we had significant difference after and before in both control and intervention group but the difference score in intervention group was more significant than control group (4.40 versus 1.09). Our study also showed significant differences between two groups after intervention (p-value = 0.007). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that acupuncture as a safe and easy treatment can be a useful and effective option for management of HD patients with sensory neuropathy. Identifying exact neurobiological mechanism of acupuncture to reduce symptoms will remarkably improve the application of new therapies to decrease neuropathy symptoms.
