Acupuncture fails to reduce but increases anaesthetic gas required to prevent movement in response to surgical incision.

Acupuncture facilitates neuromuscular and oculomotor responses to skin incision with no influence on auditory evoked potentials under sevoflurane anaesthesia. Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Kvorning, N., Christiansson, C., & Åkeson, J. (2003). Acupuncture facilitates neuromuscular and oculomotor responses to skin incision with no influence on auditory evoked potentials under sevoflurane anaesthesia. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, 47(9), 1073 -1078 . DOI: 10.1034 /j.1399 -6576.2003 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Malmö University Hospital, Lund University, Malmö, Sweden Background: More sevoflurane was recently found to be required to prevent movement in response to surgical incision in anaesthetized patients subjected to electro-acupuncture (EA) than to sham procedures. The present study was designed to compare differences in movement, dilatation of the pupils, divergence of the eye axes and activity of auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) between patients given and those not given EA under standardized sevoflurane anaesthesia. Methods: Neuromuscular, oculomotor and AEP responses to skin incision were assessed with and without a bilateral 2-Hz burst EA in patients under steady-state anaesthesia maintained with 1.8% of sevoflurane. Forty-five healthy patients, scheduled for laparoscopic sterilization, were randomized for EA (n ¼ 22) or sham (n ¼ 23) procedures between induction of anaesthesia and start of surgery. Middle latency AEP activity was recorded and interpreted by the A-line ARX (autoregression with exogenous input) index (AAI). Results: More acupuncture than sham patients were found to respond to skin incision with movement of the neck or limbs (77% vs. 43%; P ¼ 0.021), dilatation of the pupils (77% vs. 39%;