ABSTRACT
A number of factors are taken into account in the selection of patients for acupuncture analgesia. For example, age matters. Acupuncture is not ineffective in children, as has often been suggested in the West,e but they are liable to show lack of cooperation and may therefore be excluded, as is the case with the very old, albeit that in some geriatric cases chemical anaesthesia may not be desirable and acupuncture then comes to the surgeon's relief. The type of operation envisaged is also an important consideration. If deep analgesia and full muscular relaxation is required, chemical anaesthesia is to be preferred, as also in operations on the limbs. Acupuncture analgesia is seldom used for operations necessitating more than 3 hours, though it has been successful up to 6 hours. f On the physical condition of the patient practice has differed, for sometimes acupuncture analgesia has been avoided in situations of shock and severe blood loss, yet other accounts have reported good success in all
a This was the vie\v of Wall (I), but after a study-tour in China he retracted it in Wall (2). Others have also favoured this interpretation, e.g. Kroger (2); Chisholm (I); McRobert (I). Among them was Dr M. K. Rajakumar of Kuala Lumpur, whose opinion we could not share, but to whom we are much indebted for valuable references on hypno-anaesthesia (cf. p. 237 below), the reality of which is also indubitable. But the vast majority of observers find very little in common between acupuncture analgesia and hypnosis, e.g. Smithers et ale (I); McLeod et ale (I).
