J Anesth Perioper Med. 2017;4(6):260-265. https://doi.org/10.24015/ebcmed.japm.2017.0091
From the 1Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 2Department of Anesthesiology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
Correspondence to Dr. Lize Xiong at mzkxlz@126.com.
EBCMED ID: ebcmed.japm.2017.0091 DOI: 10.24015/ebcmed.japm.2017.0091
Aim of review
Though new narcotics and anesthetic techniques have been developed, the postoperative mortality rate is still high because of the perioperative complications. The main goal of this article is to introduce how does traditional Chinese medicine improve the quality of perioperative recovery, especially review the attractive influence that acupuncture brought to the perioperative application in surgical patients.
Methods
The article focused on the recent development of perioperative acupuncture and postoperative recovery, went through the most important references in acupuncture history and the key findings from several study groups focused on this area around the world. By listing the evolution of acupuncture over time, the definition and relationship of acupuncture and surgery have changed. The article list systematically a brief conclusion about Potential benefits of perioperative acupuncture.
Recent findings
The advantages of perioperative acupuncture are concluded as relieving the postoperative pain, reducing the doses of analgesic or anesthetic drugs and decreasing the side effects, stabilizing the indexes of the physiological condition, and accelerating the postoperative recovery, etc. There is a lot of documentary evidence to go deep into the mechanisms that acupuncture involved in, such as reducing surgical stress response, maintaining the stability of the homeostasis, and regulating the balance of autonomic nerves, etc. Experimental studies have verified the importance of endocannabinoid system which plays the specific role in acupuncture anesthesia that involved in the protective effects of various organs.
Conclusions
The concept “acupuncture-drug balanced anesthesia (ABA)” is now brought forward to express the optimal role and position of acupuncture practice in the perioperative period. There are reasonable grounds to believe that acupuncture would be commonly used to enhance postoperative recovery and accepted around the world. (Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Overseas, Hong Kong & Macao Scholars Collaborated Researching Fund, and the National Key Basic Research and Development Program of China.)
Article Type
Original Article
Declaration of Interests
The authors have no other potential conflicts of interest for this work.
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81473488), the Overseas, Hong Kong & Macao Scholars Collaborated Researching Fund (81529004), and the National Key Basic Research and Development Program (2014CB543202) of China).
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