Acupuncture

If you have ever had an operation, you were first put to sleep with a gas you breathed or by a chemical injected into your body. Medical workers in the United States of America and Europe have used these methods in operations since 1842. They have been valuable in preventing great pain which would have occurred if the patient had not been put to sleep.

The Chinese, however, have been able to perform operations for about 4 000 years without putting the patient to sleep. They use a method called acupuncture. This involves sticking flexible needles into certain parts of the body.

The person who performs the acupuncture must know how to insert the needles so the needles themselves are not painful. This person also knows where to place the needles so the patient feels no pain in the area where the operation is to be performed. The needles are not necessarily inserted near the region where the pain is to be prevented.

Today, the Chinese are learning to be more efficient and skilled in their use of acupuncture, but more research should be done before the Chinese can explain more convincingly how it works.

A surgical patient is given a choice between having acupuncture or having one of the chemicals used for putting him to sleep. It has been estimated that over half of the patients chose acupuncture because there is no sickness after the operation, whereas the chemicals may make the patient sick for a few hours or a day.

If the person has chosen acupuncture, the needles are inserted in the proper places. After several minutes, the patient is examined to see if he or she can feel pain in the region where the operation will be performed. If no pain is felt, the operation is performed. The patient is fully awake and can feel the surgeon working.

Some doctors in the United States have been skeptical about acupuncture. However, it is already being used to a very limited extent in this country. It will be interesting to see if the method becomes adopted here.