Yurasek treats a Chinese doctor during his 2018 visit to the hospital in Lanzhou, Gansu province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Combination of acupuncture and anesthesia is proving effective

Doctors at Gansu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine recently received a thank-you letter from doctors in the United States, showing what win-win outcomes can be achieved when doctors from the two countries work together and learn from each other.

Xue Jianjun, director of the hospital's anesthetic medicine center, received the letter from Frank Yurasek, director of acupuncture at the Cook County Health and Hospitals Systems in Chicago.

Yurasek and colleague Robert Fischer visited the Gansu hospital for a couple of weeks in September 2018 to learn how to combine TCM with Western anesthetic technology.

Xue, who has more than 20 years of clinical experience in anesthesia, said combining acupuncture with Western anesthesia had a great effect in relieving patients' anxiety before an operation, protecting major organs during surgery and reducing the rate of postoperative complications.

Yurasek, an acupuncture specialist with years of practical experience, has visited many Chinese cities, including Guangzhou in Guangdong province, Shanghai and Beijing, to learn TCM.

Ding Fanfan, a resident at Gansu Provincial Hospital of TCM, said the two US doctors attended the morning shift meeting every day. The center also formulated a study plan for the doctors as well as courses for them to learn basic TCM theories.

They often visited the operating room to see how acupuncture was used during operations, and asked how the patients were feeling, Ding said.

They also wrote notes and questions in a notebook, he said, adding that he was impressed by Yurasek's diligence and love for TCM.

Frank Yurasek (second from left) gives a lecture to Chinese doctors as his colleague Robert Fischer (right) looks on during their visit to Gansu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2018. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The learning has been mutual, as Yurasek also had some "tricks up his sleeve" as a TCM specialist, Xue said.

He said he once experienced some sciatic pain, and Yurasek used acupuncture to help alleviate the pain. Other doctors at the center would also talk with the two US doctors and they often learned from each other.

Yurasek wrote in the thank-you note that his team had begun to use and research acupuncture-assisted anesthesia before, during and after mastectomy and lumpectomy operations, in the cardiac catheterization laboratory during the placement of pacemakers, heart oblation and other cardiac procedures, and had asked for permission to use and study acupuncture assisted anesthesia in the repair of fractured legs.

"We would have never received that level of training anywhere in the US, let alone anywhere else in the world," he said. "But it is the ripple effect here in Chicago, at our hospital, one of the oldest and largest hospitals in the US, that I want to make sure you understand what the training we received accomplished here."

None of the work would have been possible without the incredible training and the confidence they felt after being trained by Xue's staff, he said.

"We have a saying here at Cook County Stroger Hospital that goes back to our founding 135 years ago: 'See, Do, Teach.' It seems Gansu Provincial Hospital works the same way," he wrote.

"The difference the training has made to the quality of care we provide to our patients is clearly obvious and will continue to grow. We need to come back to continue to learn from the masters and bring more of our colleagues from the US and Canada along with us."

The exchanges and friendship have continued. In July 2019, Yurasek brought two colleagues to the center to learn the acupuncture techniques. In June, he gave a video speech at a conference in Gansu about the way his hospital has used acupuncture to reduce complications, prevent drug abuse, and treat diabetes.