Brain operation under acupuncture done in Madras

Madras, March 12: For the first time, brain operation was successfully performed on a patient yesterday at the Government Stanley Hospital here under “acupuncture anaesthesia.”

According to Dr. P. Narendran, Professor of NeuroSurgery at the Hospital, who did the operation, this was the first time in India that the brain was operated with acupuncture anaesthesia instead of the general anaesthesia.

The patient, a 30yearold labourer, was referred from the Calicut Medical College Hospital to the Stanley Hospital three weeks ago. He complained of vomitting, severe headache and deterioration in vision because of intracranial pressure.

Explaining “acupuncture anaesthesia,” Dr. Narendran said hairlike needles were punctured not into the muscle but under the skin at various ‘meridian points’ of the body. The needles could be operated either by hand or by low voltage current. In this case, electric acupuncture was used by putting 26 needles in the webs of the toes, feet and in the scalp at various ‘meridian points’. The patient developed ‘analgesia’ (abolition of pain sensation) on the scalp where the operation was done.

Dr. Narendran said the patient was conscious throughout the surgery and was talking to the doctor. During the entire 90minute operation, the acupuncture was continued. There was no appreciable alteration in the patient’s pulse and respiration in the course of the operation. But there was a slight rise in the blood pressure for a few minutes in the initial stages and later it came to normal. He did not feel even a little pain and walked up to his ward after the operation. It could also be done on animals like race horses for improving their efficiency.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

MARCH 13, 1924