[Research on Acupuncture Anesthesia-analgesia].

In the present paper, the author retrospects the historical developmental stages of acupuncture anesthesia-analgesia from 1) preliminary exploration:the creative application of acupuncture therapy to surgery with lower dosage or without anesthetics began in Shanghai and Xi'an in 1958; 2) clinical popularization:the acupuncture anesthesia-analgesia became popularized from 1965, peaked in 1970s' and declined from 1980s'; 3) mechanism study:from 1970 to 2000, a large quantity of research papers were published to confirm the validity of acupuncture analgesia (AA), and in 1997, NIH Consensus Conference for acupuncture was held, promoting the related research in the world; 4) focused research:from 2007 to now, the acupuncture anesthesia-analgesia was listed as one of the key research program in China; 5) theoretical summary:in view of the uncertainty of the scientific basis of the meridian system of traditional Chinese medicine, the nerve fibers distributed under the acupoint are now considered to be the indispensable components for AA, and the knowledge of modern neuroscience is competent to explain the underlying mechanism of AA; 6) returning to reality:AA has been accepted by the international scientific community, and the "acupuncture-assisted anesthesia", or "compound acupuncture and anesthetics anesthesia" has been used as the first choice for some types of surgical operation. The research on acupuncture anesthesia-analgesia greatly facilitates clinical application of acupuncture therapy in the world, and also promotes the development of acupuncture therapy itself and neuroscience. However, the transformation between theory and practice and their mutual interaction are endless endeavor. Thus, a careful review of the half-century-long practice of acupuncture anesthesia-analgesia is painstakingly necessary in order to clarifying the mechanisms, to raise the efficacy of clinical practice and to correct the possible errors referred to this concept.