Acupuncture - Knee Surgery

Acupuncture is often the sole treatment for many health problems. In some cases, such as acupuncture and knee surgery, it can be a supplemental help to the primary treatment.

Acupuncture - Knee Surgery

In order to prevent the spread of more confusion and conflict on the subject of acupuncture and alternative medicine in general, it should be noted that the title of this article is a bit misleading. Acupuncture is not actually used to perform surgery on the knee. Invasive surgical procedures are the trademark of Western Style Medicine. Acupuncture has several uses in the pre-operative and post-operative periods of a major invasive knee surgery.

Pain control is one recognized area where acupuncture shows excellent results. Much of the literature of acupuncture deals with pain. Pain is considered to be caused by a blockage in the normal flow of vital energy through a series of channels known as Meridians that crisscross the body. If the blockages are removed, the pain should cease. Since knee surgery often results in much pain and discomfort in the period immediately after the surgery and in the pre-ambulatory period, acupuncture treatments after knee surgery should be valuable.

There have also been tests done on the relationship of acupuncture treatments given before knee surgery and the pain levels in the post-op period. The results were surprising to the surgeons conducting the tests. A control group was given acupuncture treatments that targeted points that would have no possible relationship to pain relief or the knee. Some of the points were not even actual acupuncture points. The test group received needling in three points directly related to the knee and pain relief.