Pain treatment by means of acupuncture

Acupuncture has played an important part in pain research. Bischko was the first in the Western hemisphere to undertake surgery using acupuncture analgesia. This tonsillectomy was performed in 1972. Decisive research work has been carried out at the Ludwig Boltzmann Acupuncture Institute in Vienna. We now have far more knowledge about the importance of the basic system. Furthermore, we know that the theories on chaos research, and, especially the fractals play an important role. Various ways of treating pain by means of acupuncture will be discussed: e.g. body acupuncture (with or without supportive transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation); treatment via the so-called somatotopies (ear, oral mucous membrane, scalp acupuncture according to Yamamoto etc.). The Ludwig Boltzmann Acupuncture Institute, in close collaboration with the II. Dept. of Internal Medicine at the Kaiserin-Elisabeth Hospital, Vienna, has been able to demonstrate on inpatients with a variety of conditions, that acupuncture could significantly reduce the quantity of analgesics required.