BBC series Alternative Medicine - more criticism.

[mahakala]

"As the surgeon begins, the success of the operation depends not just on his skill, but on the power of acupuncture.” That shows that the results of the open-heart procedure were indeed attributed to the "power of acupuncture"."

Nice bit of linguistic distortion there dude. What about "not just" do you not understand?

Perhaps you wouild like to volunteer for an experiment to see if the needles work as well or better than placebo.

[bobdezon]

The only power acupuncture has, is the ability to make idiots vocally defend it as a "cure all" on a public forum.

[Blue Wode]

"As the surgeon begins, the success of the operation depends not just on his skill, but on the power of acupuncture.” That shows that the results of the open-heart procedure were indeed attributed to the "power of acupuncture"."

Nice bit of linguistic distortion there dude. What about "not just" do you not understand?

Here’s the actual segment (4 mins 20 secs):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-dWMpuYnwQ

Don’t forget what the well respected scientist, Simon Singh, had to say about it:

…the scene showing a patient punctured with needles and undergoing heart surgery left viewers with the strong impression that acupuncture was providing immense pain relief. In fact, in addition to acupuncture, the patient had a combination of three very powerful sedatives (midazolam, droperidol, fentanyl) and large volumes of local anaesthetic injected into the chest.

With such a cocktail of chemicals, the needles were merely cosmetic. In short, this memorable bit of television was emotionally powerful, but scientifically meaningless in building a case for acupuncture. I have spoken to several experts who say that the procedure was neither shocking nor impressive, but it was unconventional because the Chinese surgeons seemed to have used a higher level of local anaesthetic to compensate for the lack of general anaesthetic.

When I put this to Professor Sykes, she replied: "The suggestion that the operation could have taken place without the acupuncture and it would have been fine is an interesting idea and might possibly be the case."

Even though the television commentary was technically accurate, by omission and emphasis, viewers were left with a false impression. Everyone I have spoken to, including Ian Bell, believed they had witnessed acupuncture providing major pain relief, so they felt misled when I explained what was really going on.

Of course, recent scientific studies have hinted at tentative evidence that acupuncture might provide limited pain relief, but this is still far from proved and many other studies have shown that acupuncture is nothing more than a placebo. However, the programme makers seemed to have focused on whatever positive evidence was available and then added a dollop of impressively irrelevant heart surgery to cast acupuncture in the best light.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2006/02/14/ecnaccupunct.xml

[JJM]

In the 1970s, and again in 1998, Isadore Rosenfeld published an account of heart surgery performed under acupuncture. He had some pictures, and reported that the patient was smiling while they cut through her sternum. This was discussed by Gary Posner and Wallace Sampson in The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (3:2 Fall/Winter 1999, 15-19). They listed numerous reasons to doubt the story.

One problem with the description is: if the surgeons cut through the sternum, the lungs would collapse without artificial ventilation (which she did not have). Also, the photograph shows the operation being performed on the left side of her torso. More careful analysis of the photo suggests the operation could have been a sham.

In another case, Patrick Wall reports in his book (Pain, Columbia U. Press, 2000) about a man undergoing real thoracic surgery under acupuncture. Wall points-out (as did Posner and Sampson) that candidates for acupuncture surgery are a select group- they are notably prone to suggestion. Then, there must a period of days over which they can be indoctrinated. In the case of the surgery witnessed by Wall, the patient came to his senses before the operation was finished and the result was ugly since orderlies had to hold the guy down.

[Blue Wode]

In the 1970s, and again in 1998, Isadore Rosenfeld published an account of heart surgery performed under acupuncture. He had some pictures, and reported that the patient was smiling while they cut through her sternum. This was discussed by Gary Posner and Wallace Sampson in The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (3:2 Fall/Winter 1999, 15-19). They listed numerous reasons to doubt the story.

Here’s the article:
http://members.aol.com/garypos/Rosenfeld_sram.html

One problem with the description is: if the surgeons cut through the sternum, the lungs would collapse without artificial ventilation (which she did not have). Also, the photograph shows the operation being performed on the left side of her torso. More careful analysis of the photo suggests the operation could have been a sham.

The surgery certainly does look to be in a very strange location. Click on this link to see the photo (enlarged and rotated):
http://members.aol.com/garypos2/Rosenfeld_photo2.html

And for Dr. Rosenfeld's original Parade article, including the photo, see here:
http://members.aol.com/garypos2/Rosenfeld_photo1.html

In another case, Patrick Wall reports in his book (Pain, Columbia U. Press, 2000) about a man undergoing real thoracic surgery under acupuncture. Wall points-out (as did Posner and Sampson) that candidates for acupuncture surgery are a select group- they are notably prone to suggestion. Then, there must a period of days over which they can be indoctrinated.

I wonder if the select group of candidates for acupuncture surgery might also tend to be quite poor. After all, Kathy Sykes mentioned at the end of the Youtube clip that the bill (which we saw the patient paying) was a third of the cost of an operation with a general anaesthetic.

[Blue Wode]

Patrick Wall reports in his book (Pain, Columbia U. Press, 2000) about a man undergoing real thoracic surgery under acupuncture. Wall points-out (as did Posner and Sampson) that candidates for acupuncture surgery are a select group- they are notably prone to suggestion. Then, there must a period of days over which they can be indoctrinated. In the case of the surgery witnessed by Wall, the patient came to his senses before the operation was finished and the result was ugly since orderlies had to hold the guy down.

Although I understand that because of their tender years and very active imaginations children are more prone to suggestion than adults, I really hope this young patient didn’t feel any pain:

A 10-year-old from a poor family in Sichuan Province finally received an operation to treat his congenital heart disease, thanks to a Shanghai hospital that used acupuncture anesthesia to reduce side effects and cut medical costs in half.

The boy, Wang Wenbin, was the youngest patient in China ever to undergo the needle-based procedure, under which doctors are able to cut the dosage of traditional anesthetic drugs by one-fifth to one-third and allow the patient to breathe by himself instead of using a respirator, the hospital said yesterday.

During surgery, doctors at Shanghai Shuguang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital inserted needles at several points on the hands and the chest.

The advantage is that general anesthesia requires a large dose of an anesthetic and creates possible adverse side effects in the brain, especially for a child patient. It also risks lung infection associated with the use of a respirator.

"After starting the practice in late 2005, we have promoted it for surgeries of the heart, brain, abdomen and nose, and broadened patients' age range," said Dr Shen Weidong, director of the Shuguang hospital's acupuncture department. "Doctors, however, must carefully choose the patients for acupuncture anesthesia."

More…

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=371006&type=Metro

Interestingly, the article seems to confirm what Kathy Sykes mentioned at the end of her BBC2 CAM episode, Ancient Wisdoms - i.e. that the bill which we witness the (probably not very well-off) acupuncture heart surgery patient paying was a third of the cost of an operation with a general anaesthetic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-dWMpuYnwQ