ACUPUNCTURE ANESTHESIA AND COMBINED ACUPUNCTURE ANESTHESIA ON IMMUNE FUNCTION

Ding Xiujuan, Ju Jiuhong, Shi ialin, Gui linshui

(Shanghai Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian)

Xiang Limin, Zhu Fengxian

(Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai College of TCM)

In order to investigate the post-operation effect of acupuncture anesthesia, the incorporation method was used to determine lymphocyte transformation rate (LTR).

Twenty-four cases of subtotal gastrectomy were divided into three groups: the acupuncture anesthesia group, the combined acupuncture anesthesia group and the epidural anesthesia group. The vein blood of every patient was determined the day before operation and on 1st, 3rd, and 5th day after operation.

The LTR (cpmXIOVlO6 lymphocytes) before operation was 8.75±5.1 in the acupuncture anesthesia group, 6.60±2.25 in the combined acupuncture anesthesia group and 6.41±3.10 in the epidural anesthesia group, and it was 2.13±1.4, 3.00±1.91 and 1.93±1.00 respectively on the 1st day after operation. The LTR returned to the level of pre-operation on the 3rd day after-operation. It should be pointed out that the cell immune function of patients undergoing acupuncture anesthesia and epidural anesthesia was more significantly reduced than that of patients undergoing the combined acupuncture anesthesia.

In addition, we observed the content of serum cortisol, which was more incremental on the 1st day after-operation than that the day before operation in the patients of the 3 groups. The increase in the content of serum cortisol corresponded to the reduction in cell immune function. For this reason, the reduction in cell immune function in the three different anesthesia methods on the 1st day after the operation which might be of the stress action, caused the inhibition of the human cell immune function by the cortisol hormone.