This paper presents 19 cases of subtotal gastrectomies performed under“acupuncture-drug combined anesthesia”and 20 cases of the same operationwith simple epidural block(as a control)with the mere purpose of studyingthe effect of acupuncture anesthesia.Epidural block was used in both groups.To the cases of the former

needle puncturing and electric stimulation on Zusanli and Shangjuxu pointswere added bilaterally.The primary requisition for the anesthesia was thatthe dosage of 1.6% lidocaine to be injected into epidural space must efficien-tly provide against pain through the operation.The total dose and the meandose per hour of the drug used were calculated.A formula was designed toevaluate the actual efficacy of acupuncture anesthesia(NSI).The formulawas designed as follows.NSI=mX-nX/mX ×100mX represents mean dose milliliter of 1.6% lidocaine used in control groupper hour.nX represents mean dose milliliter of 1.6% lidocaine used for acupuncture-drug combined anesthesia group.The calculated results for mX and nX were as follows:mX=13.0±2.5nX=8.9±2.5(p<0.01)This would mean that if the operation was made under the anesthesia ofboth drug and acupuncture

the dose of the drug would be smaller than that without acupuncture.Statistical analysis indicated that there was significantdifference between them

Using the formula designed above

then31.5%(NSI=13-8.9/13×100)was obtained.The result showed that tak-ing anesthesia effect as a whole there would be 31.5% due to the effect ofthe acupuncture.The E-rosette formation counts were performed in 17 cases with acu-puncture-drug combined anesthesia and 11 cases with simple epidural blockbefore and 30 minutes after the anesthesia

60 minutes after starting the opera-tion and also 24 hours after the operation.The percentage of the E-rosetteof two groups were then compared and the results showed that the percentageof E-rosette formation rate was significantly decreased at 30 minutes afteranesthesia and 60 minutes after starting the operation

with the t-values of2.1116 and 2.7778(p<0.05)respectively.In the simple epidural block group

the t-value of 30 and 60 minutes were 4.5475 and 3.7331(p<0.01)respec-tively.Evidently

the percentage of E-rosette formation rate of simple epi-dural block group decreased more markedly.The results of this study indicated that combined anesthesia with drugand acupuncture may have the following valuable points:Decrease of the dosage of anesthesia drug;Slight depression of immune reaction.Besides

the designed formula may be useful to evaluate the acupunctureeffect in anesthesia.