Zhejiang's first minimally invasive cancer surgery with acupuncture anesthesia a success
With the assistance of medical experts from Shanghai, surgeons in Zhejiang Province performed their first minimally invasive lung cancer operation with acupuncture anesthesia on Saturday.
Through the TCM-based technique, the surgery utilized a tubeless procedure for less trauma and a quicker recovery. The 67-year-old patient was able to walk back to her ward right after the surgery.
Dr Chen Tongyu performs Zhejiang's first minimally invasive lung cancer surgery with acupuncture anesthesia.
The patient, who had a one-centimeter nodule on her left lung, went to the Yiwu branch of Shanghai Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, worried about the surgery.
"I am weak and always in poor physical condition," said the woman surnamed Zhu. "I am very anxious for undergoing a lung cancer surgery. But after Yueyang doctors told me that they have acupuncture anesthesia to achieve tubeless operation and quicker recovery, I felt relieved."
The surgery conducted on Saturday morning was very smooth. About 30 minutes before the surgery, doctors conducted acupuncture anesthesia on the patient's acupoints. The nodule was removed just 15 minutes after the surgery started at 9:30am.
The patient regained consciousness on the operation table. She told doctors that she was thirsty and was given some water. This would not have been possible after general anesthesia surgery. She walked back to the ward under the escort of medics 30 minutes later.
The patient was able to walk back to the ward.
Lung cancer is the most prevalent and deadly cancer in the nation. With the promotion of CT scanning, more people are being detected with lung nodules in early stages, and undergo surgery.
"The removal of nodule is a minimally-invasive surgery, however, patients need to undergo tracheal intubation for anesthesia," said Dr Chen Tongyu, director of Yueyang's cardiothoracic surgery department.
"Such practice is a typical example of 'small surgery with big injury.' So Yueyang introduced the combination of TCM and Western medicine to help doctors achieve super minimally-invasive surgeries in certain fields through acupuncture anesthesia."
Without intubation, the dosage of anesthesia can drop by 80 percent for heart and lung surgeries if using acupuncture anesthesia. Without using muscle relaxants, important assistant medication for general anesthesia, the process of anesthesia and surgery is greatly shorted and patients can enjoy a quicker resuscitation.
"Minimally invasive doesn't only mean a small cut but the entire process with minimally invasive procedures, including anesthesia, surgery, rehabilitation, imaging, acupuncture and nursing," Chen said.
"We should reduce the trauma to the least level while ensuring patients' safety. So far, we have finished nearly 1,000 modern acupuncture anesthesia tubeless thoracoscopic surgeries. We also introduced acupuncture into post-surgery pain management and rehabilitation to provide more and better service to lung cancer patients."
The promotion of acupuncture anesthesia to Yiwu, Zhejiang Province,is a good example of introducing high-end medical resources from Shanghai to the Yangtze River Delta region.
"We will help build the Yiwu hospital into a leading TCM medical center in Zhejiang through closer cooperation," said Zhou Jia, president of Yueyang Hospital.
