Recent studies on auriculoacupuncture and its mechanism.

This article is based on the review of more than eighty references involving clinical treatment, analgesia, auriculoacupoint for diagnosis and its mechanism. In the first part, selection of acupoints, methods of manipulation, therapeutic effects and related experience in 56 kinds of respiratory, circulatory, digestive, urological, gynaecological, obstetrical, pediatric, otolaryngologic and ophthalmologic, dermatologic diseases and diseases of the nervous systems, as well as treatment of acute abdominal diseases, reduction of body weight, abstinence from smoking and drinking, etc. are discussed. A variety of stimulation methods, such as auriculoacupuncture with filform needles, needle embedding therapy, point injection, bloodletting, laser irradiation, aurioular plaster and pressing therapy, etc are also introduced. In the second part, experiences of surgical operation and endoscopy under auriculoacupuncture anesthesia are described. The third part deals with diagnosis using auriculoacupoints. Also described in this part is the clinical application of auricular acupoints in the diagnosis of cancers, coronary diseases, cholelithiasis, hepatitis, tertian malaria, etc. The correlation between the morphology and function of auricular acupoints, i.e. the relationship between auricular acupoints and visceral function, and main development in clinical therapy, diagnosis and mechanism of auriculoacupuncture are introduced in the fourth part, including the results of investigations of reactions of auriculoacupoints during disorders of the body and viscerae, reactions of viscerae during stimulation of auriculoacupoints and their transmission routes. Based on the analysis of the history and current status of research on auriculoacupuncture, the author emphasizes the necessity of attaching importance at the same time to prophylaxis and treatment of serious diseases and standardization of nomenclature. Suggestions in this connexion are also made.