Zhen Ci Yan Jiu. 1989 ; 14(4): 403-6.

[A summary on effects of combined acupuncture anaesthesia for critical, old, week, special patients]

Zhang RH, Liang YJ, Ruan PX, Wen KH.

This article summarized the effects of combined acupuncture-epidural anaesthesia (n = 37) and epidural anaesthesia (n = 37) for operations of patients being in a critical, old, weak or special condition. And, the effects were compared between the two different anaesthetic methods in a similar clinical condition. The patients studied were almost complicated with coronary arteriosclerotic heart disease, hypertension or other types of disease excepting the surgical condition. There were different degrees of functional disturbance in their important visceral organs. The states of the body were all belong to critical or weak condition. This might be a difficulty of considerably great for anaesthesia and operation. By using combined acupuncture-epidural anaesthesia, the advantages of acupuncture anaesthesia and epidural anaesthesia were brought into fully play, and, the defect of incomplete analgesia as well as inadequate muscle relaxation was remedied. By acupuncture for 30 to 40 minutes, the EGGs that were originally abnormal had shown some improvement in parts of case and recovered to normal in individual patient. Even though the EGGs had not shown improvement in some cases, but, took no further steps to deteriorate, although undergoing harmful effects in operative process, such as exploration, hemorrhage or others. In some cases, the circulative function showed stabilization exceeding one's expectations. The result showed that acupuncture has a regulative role on the cardiovascular system, thus enhancing the safety in anaesthetic process.