title: [Acupuncture treatment for a patient with prolonged consciousness disturbance after a brain tumor surgery].
abstract: Acupuncture has long been applied as a therapeutic technique in China, Japan, Korea and other countries. Recently, its application began to be extended to the treatment of neural disorders. We experienced a 13-year-old boy with prolonged consciousness disturbance after a pineal tumor surgery and muscle contracture of lower extremity by long-term recumbency. We applied him acupuncture treatment for 4 months which was effective to alleviate these symptoms. Repeated IMP SPECT showed improvement of the cerebral blood flow (CBF) during the course of acupuncture therapy. Acupuncture was effective to improve prolonged coma after a brain surgery and also muscle contracture by long-lasting recumbency. CBF showed a slight increase along with the recovery of consciousness suggesting a strong relevance between CBF and improvement of these symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Jichi Medical University, Graduate School, Shimotsuke 329-0498.
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tamai
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: Eiju
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Watanabe
authors.forename: Masaru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kanda
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Senichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Akifumi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hyodo
authors.forename: Norimasa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Seo
mesh_terms: D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000293:Adolescent; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D003244:Consciousness Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D003286:Contracture / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010870:Pineal Gland / Q000601:surgery; D010871:Pinealoma / Q000601:surgery; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000628:therapy*