Here is the abstract of the final report for the project "Improvement of Anesthesia and Analgesia of Acupuncture Combined with Drugs: Clinical Observation and Experimental Research", one of the national key projects in the ninth five year plan.The results of clinical and experimental studies from Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai showed that acupuncture combined with drugs is the very useful method during clinical anesthesia (no matter epidural anesthesia or general anesthesia) and analgesia (such as pain during labor, post operative pain and sciatic neuralgia). Acupuncture can not only produce analgesia, but also protect the physiological functions of many organs such as brain, heart, kidney and throat. By the way, some new progress about the experimental research of the mechanism of acupuncture analgesia has been carried out, such as the relationship between the new discovered neuro modulators (endomorphin, orphanin FQ) and acupuncture analgesia.
Acupuncture anesthesia is created by Chinese medical workers first in 1950s’. Up to now, about more than 1000,000 cases of operation including above 100 types of operation have been conducted under acupuncture anesthesia in China. In order to solve the problems of incomplete analgesia, muscular tension and reactions of visceral pulling, from the late stage of 1970s’, Chinese medical workers have been adopting acupuncture anesthesia combined with anesthetics to enhance analgesic effect for operation and achieved considerable achievements. 1. Research on acupuncture combined with epidural anesthesia before 1990. In 1979, National Acupuncture Anesthesia Subtotal Gastrectomy Corporation Group made a study program on acupuncture plus anesthetics compound anesthesia methods, etc. In 1981, the clinical effect of acupuncture plus anesthetics compound anesthesia was confirmed by the National Acupuncture Anesthesia Operation Academic Symposium. From that time on, acupuncture plus anesthetics compound anesthesia method begins. 2. Research on acupuncture combined with epidural anesthesia from 1991 to 1995. During "the 8th 5 years", clinical research on acupuncture combined with epidural anesthesia for renal transplatation, subtotal gastrectomy, abdominouterectomy, cholecystectomy, etc began. In addition, study on the conventional operating procedures for subtotal gastrectomy under acupuncture anesthesia combined with epidural administration of small dose of anesthetics was brought into the "State 8th 5 years’ Key Research Projects of Science and Technology". Results of acupuncture plus anesthetics compound anesthesia indicate that ①the analgesic effect is enhanced significantly and the operation conducted under painless state basically; ② the dose of anesthetics needed is decreased significantly; ③ physiological disorders induced during operation are fewer, and the time for urination after renal transplantation is advanced; but ④ the anesthetic methods should be simplified, the applied anesthetics types and the
