This arlicle summarized the effects of comhined acupuncture-epidural anaesthe-sia (n=37) and epidural anaesthesia (n=37) for operations of patients being in a critical

old

weak or special condition. And

the effecte were compared between the two different anaesthetic methods in a similar clinical condition. The patients studied were almost complicated with coronary arteriosclerotic heart disease

hypertension or other types of disease excepting the surgical condilion. Therewere different degrees of functional disturbance in their important visceral organs

The states of the body were all belong to critical or weak condition. This might be a difficulty of considerably great for anaesthesia and operation

By using combined acupuncture-epidural anaesthesis

the advantages of acupuncture anaes-thesia and epidural anaesthesia were brought into fully play

and

the defect of imcomplete analgesia as well as inadequate muscle relaxation was remedied. By acupuncture for 30 to 40 minutes

the EGG_s thal were originally abnormal had shown some improvement in parts of case and recovered to normal in individuralpatient. Even though the EGG_s had not shown improvement in some cases

but

taked no further steps to deterioate

although undergoing harmful effects in operative process

such as exploratioh

hemorrhage or others. In some cases

the circulative function showed stabilization exceeding one's expectations. The result showed that acupuncture has a regulative role on the cardiovascular system

thus enhancing the safety in anaesthetic process.