Acupuncture Anesthesia in the People's Republic of China:  Implications for American Medicine

During the past three decades, Dr. John J. Bonica has been greatly involved in the pioneering of American anesthesiology as a teacher, clinician, and investigator. He has devoted much of his professional effort to the study of pain mechanisms and the management of chronic pain syndromes. In 1953, he published The Management of Pain, a 1,500-page volume that has become established as the "bible" of pain. He has also published more than 100 articles on the subject and has recently edited two monographs reporting most recent research on pain. Dr. Bonica is Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Acupuncture of the National Institutes of Health and a similar committee of the American Society of Anesthesiologists. Last year, he was selected by the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People's Republic of China of the National Academy of Sciences to be a member of the first official American medical delegation to visit the People's Republic of China, and was given the responsibility of evaluating acupuncture and anesthesia as practiced in that country.