Grigory V. Chernyak, Daniel I. Sessler; Perioperative Acupuncture and Related Techniques. Anesthesiology 2005;102(5):1031-1049.
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Each organ has a corresponding meridian with acupuncture points located along it.
Meridians travel inside the body and on the body’s surface and are connected to each other and organs by a complex network of accessory collaterals.
The function of the meridians is to regulate and modify the corresponding organ or group of related organs. It is believed that meridians can control pain along the areas they traverse.
All points are located in a small hollow or depression on the skin surface.
Acupuncture points are usually tender compared with the surrounding area. The patient feels slight pain radiating circumferentially for at least a centimeter when the point is pressed.
A roughness or stickiness can be appreciated when brushing slightly with the finger.21
A specific feeling called the De-Qi sensation is usually felt by the patient, when a needle stimulates the acupuncture point.
Acupuncture needles stimulate type I and type II afferent nerves or A-δ fibers in muscles, all of which send impulses to the anterolateral tract of the spinal cord. At the spinal cord, pain is blocked presynaptically by the release of enkephalin and dynorphin, preventing pain messages from ascending in the spinothalamic tract.
Acupuncture stimulates midbrain structures by activating cells in the periaqueductal gray matter and the raphe nucleus. They in turn send descending signals through the dorsolateral tract, causing the release of the monoamines norepinephrine and serotonin in the spinal cord. These neurotransmitters inhibit pain presynaptically and postsynaptically by reducing transmission of signals through the spinothalamic tract.
Stimulation in the pituitary–hypothalamic complex provokes systemic release of β endorphin into the bloodstream from the pituitary gland. Its release is accompanied by the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone.
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