Coronary arteriography under acupuncture anesthesia: a case report

Acupuncture anesthesia is a technique by partially or completely replacing anesthetics with acupuncture in surgery based on the traditional acupuncture analgesia mechanism. It emerged in the 1950s, went viral in the 1970s and then gradually fell into decline. In the recent years, this technique has regained attention and further research. Acupuncture anesthesia can be classified as either pure acupuncture anesthesia or acupuncture-medication combined anesthesia. To expand the application of this technique, a patient with non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome in urgent need of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) received pure acupuncture anesthesia because of an allergy to lidocaine, and the operation went successfully. This is the first time that pure acupuncture anesthesia and coronary arteriography were combined, which is of great significance in further study and development of acupuncture anesthesia.