Acupuncture anesthesia and analgesia for clinical acute pain in Japan

Reina Taguchi, Reina Taguchi

Abstract

Acupuncture anesthesia has been practiced in China since about 1960. In Japan, Hyodo reported 30 cases of acupuncture anesthesia in 1972. However, from around 1980, the direction of acupuncture investigations turned from anesthesia to analgesia. Acupuncture analgesia is presently considered a way to activate the body's endogenous analgesic system. Recently, with the rise of acupuncture as one of the most well known CAM therapies, acupuncture or moxibustion treatment has been reported for both acute and chronic pain. Even so, few clinical reports and original articles have been reported in Japan. This review illustrates how acupuncture is being used in Japan for acute pain such as surgical operations, post- operative pain (POP), neuropathic pain, pain associated with teeth extractions and after the extraction of impacted wisdom teeth.

Keywords: acupuncture analgesia; acupuncture anesthesia; acute pain; individual variation; neuropathic pain; pain after extraction of impacted wisdom teeth; pain from teeth extractions; post-operative pain; surgery operation.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Possible mechanism for acupuncture analgesic and anesthesia. (A) Normal condition. Opioid peptides and receptors involved in analgesia elicited by EA of different frequencies. Activation of all three types of opioid receptors produces a synergistic analgesic effect. Abbreviations: Em; endomorphin. Enk; enkephalins, β-End; β-endorphin, Dyn; dynorphin. (B) Inflammation condition. EA might be able to release CRF and IL-1β from immunocytes within inflamed tissue. CRF or IL-1β elicited by EA may trigger the release of opioid peptides within inflamed tissue which may make peripheral opioid receptors active, reducing neuronal excitability or release of pro-inflammatory neuropeptides (e.g. substance P), thereby inhibiting pain. EA, electoacupuncture; CRF, corticotropin releasing hormone; IL-1β, interleukin 1β; M, macrophage; L, lymphocyte.

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