Acupuncture analgesia and anesthesia
T. M. Murphy and J. J. Bonica
After the war of liberation, Mao Tse Tung encouraged an integration of
Western and traditional Chinese medicine. Several schools of therapeutic
acupuncture have defined different points of puncture, originally assumed
to be on an empiric basis but now rationalized as areas where nerve endings
congregate. Results of therapeutic acupuncture in China cannog be evaluated
because of inadequate record keeping. At the University of Washington Pain
Clinic, immediate results (two to three days) are good but never lasting,
nor do they decrease concomitant medication. For anesthesia, acupuncture
acts to produce only hypalgesia in most patients, although some experience
total analgesia. Patient selection and mental preparation are careful.
Hence, the method is used in much less than 10% of the operations in China,
and in these the analgesia is satisfactory by Western standards in only
approximately 30%. Concepts as to the mode of action of acupuncture
analgesia range from an attitudinal change towards sensory input to the
release of a neurohumoral analgesic substances.
