Since James Reston's Acupuncture experiece in Beijin in 1971, America opened her eyes to acupuncture. In the 1980's, Joseph M. Helms, M.D.at UCLA studied Chinese acupuncture in France and established AAMA (American Academy of Medical Acupuncture) for physicians and authored his book “ACUPUNCTURE ENERGETICS” which has become the golden textbook for physician acupuncturists. His “energizing” tech-nique for various illness became the standard, Of course, other modalities have been utilized. With Helms' in-fluence, AAMA has grown to 2000 members including those outside the USA. In 2000, ABMA (American Board of Medical Acupuncture) was developed for the physician acupuncturists certified as experts in the field of medical acupuncture. The members are working and studying diligently. At the end of this report, I will discuss my own practice.

A 49-year-old man was admitted to another hospital because of exertional dyspnea. He had run an entire 20-km race 33 days before admission. Echocardiograms, MRI and CT scans, and cineangiograms showed a right ventricular tumor arising from the tricuspid valve, which occupied the area from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) to the pulmonary trunk and extended to the bilateral pulmonary arteries. MRI scans suggested that the tumor had not invaded the normal cardiac structure. The patient was transferred to our hospital for surgery. An operation was performed on the same day, since the tumor could have caused pulmonary embolisms. Under cardiopulmonary bypass, a right atriotomy, pulmonary arteriotomy and incision in the RVOT were made. The tumor had adhered to the chordae of the tricuspid valve, myocardium of the RVOT, and pulmonary valve. It was completely resected macroscopically. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient was discharged on the 18th postoperative day. The size of the tumor was 2.0×2.0×10.0cm and the histological diagnosis was angiosarcoma. The patient died 4 months after the operation due to brain metastasis and local recurrence. This appeared to be a case of rapidly progressive cardiac angiosarcoma with an unusual noninvasive growth pattern.

We describe a young adolescent patient with spontaneous abdominal aortic rupture who was treated successfully. A 14-year-old boy was admitted to our hospital with severe abdominal pain and hypovolemic shock, without any episode of trauma. Computed tomography (CT) revealed massive hematoma in the retroperitoneal space and extravasation of copious amounts of contrast medium in front of the terminal aorta. Neither aortic aneurysm nor dissection was observed in this CT. An emergency operation was carried out. At first, left thoracotomy and clamping of the thoracic descending aorta were performed in order to reduce the aortic bleeding. Midline laparotomy revealed an aortic perforation of approximately 8mm at the bifurcation of the abdominal aorta. The aortic wall surrounding the perforation was nearly normal without any aortic aneurysm or dissection. A segment of the terminal aorta (length, 3cm) including the perforated lesion was excised and reconstruction was performed with a woven Dacron tube graft (10mm in diameter). On microscopic examination, the marginal tissue near the perforation showed diminished elastic fibers and minimal dissection of the medial layer of the aortic wall; however, no cystic medial necrosis or inflammation was seen.

A 41-year-old woman with neurofibromatosis (NF) was admitted to our hospital for severe pain and right leg swelling of 5 days duration. Paralysis of the right leg due to compartment syndrome was also recognized. She had been diagnosed as von Recklinghausen's neurofibromatosis, previously. 3 D-computed tomography showed a ruptured anterior tibial artery aneurysm. There was a normal patent posterior tibial artery. Since her complaint of pain was severe, we performed an emergency operation. Under the pneumatic tourniquet technique, the aneurysm was resected, and both the proximal and distal sides of the anterior tibial artery were ligated. A massive hematoma was completely removed. Postoperatively, the dorsalis pedis and posterior tibial pulses remained palpable. The paralysis improved considerably and she was given an ambulatory discharge from our hospital 21 days after the operation. Histological examination revealed proliferating wavy spindle cells infiltrating between the adventitia and mesothelium of the aneurysmal wall and staining positively for S 100 immunoperoxidase.

We report a case of reoperation for proximal and distal pseudoaneurysmal formations of the ascending aorta with aortic regurgitation (AR) after an ascending aorta replacement for acute type A aortic dissection. The patient was a 69-year-old woman who had undergone ascending aorta replacement for acute type A aortic dissection six years previously. Subsequent development of pseudoaneurysms of the ascending aorta and aortic regurgitation were revealed by computed tomography and echocardiography respectively. We chose debranch Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair (TEVAR) with a staged approach. First, aortic valve replacement, patch closure of proximal pseudoaneurysmal formation, coronary artery bypass, and ascending aorta-axillary artery bypass were performed. Two weeks later, debranching and TEVAR were performed. Cardiac reoperation for proximal and distal pseudoaneurysmal formations of the ascending aorta with aortic regurgitation after an ascending aorta replacement is known to be high risk. Nevertheless we performed the operation safely in two-stage surgery.

An 80-year-old man was transferred to our hospital because of blunt traumatic aortic arch injury caused by a fall. Computed tomography (CT) revealed a pseudoaneurysm and mediastinal hematoma around the aortic arch, right hemothorax, left hemopneumothorax, lung contusion and spine fractures. His hemodynamic condition was stable but he required mechanical ventilation because of severe hypoxemia. Surgery was postponed until twelve days after the injury, when his lung function improved and active bleeding decreased. During surgery we found that the intimal disruption extended to half of the circumference of the aortic arch, and thus performed total arch replacement under deep hypothermic circulatory arrest and selective cerebral perfusion. The patient suffered respiratory failure and pneumonia postoperatively as well as multiple cerebral infarctions. He was referred to a rehabilitation center on postoperative day 130.

The authors undertook acupuncture-moxibustion therapy for 34 patients with vertigo. In order to objectify the patients' condition and the efficacy of the treatment, we ranked the severity of symptoms and standardized the treatment procedure, and also we set up the criterion for evaluation of efficaciousness.
The severity of symptoms was determined according to the result of some tests (for nystagmus and balance) as well as patient's chief complaints: the incidence and the intensity of feelings of rotation, giddiness, etc.
Treatment was undertaken once a week. One course was consist of ten treatments. Scarless moxibustion was applied to the Second Dadun point in the first course, and body-acupuncture was added to the moxibustion in the second course. In the third course, the scarless moxibustion, the body-acupuncture, auricular-acupuncture and scalp skin acupuncture were undertaken.
The efficaciousness of the treatment was rated as “remarkably efficacious”, “very efficacious”, “efficacious” or “no change” according to the changes in patients' complaints and the results of the tests performed after each course.
Twelve of the patients showed improvement after the first course (remarkably efficacious) and other twelve after the second course (very efficacious), and five of them after the third course (effecacious). The other five patients underwent more than four courses (no change).
In conclusion, improvement was seen in 85% of the patients after 30 sessions of acupuncture-moxibustion treatment including scarless moxibustion to the Second Dadun, body and auricular-acupuncture.

Acupuncture-moxibustion treatment was undertaken on two patients (a 34-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman) who were diagnosed as allergic rhinitis in an otorhinological department. The patients underwent the treatment once a week, in which direct-or scarless-moxibustion (15 pieces) was applied to Tachui (GV14) and acupuncture for whole body adjustment. The subjective symptoms, eosinophil in pituita and the results of other blood examinations were compared with those of their first visits. The eosinophiles in the pituita disappeared and those in the blood fell to the average level. Although there are individual differences, a certain prolonging effect was seen in the follow-up data.

[Purpose] We know of no reports on the effects of electro-acupuncture (EA) stimulation, on human skeletal muscle blood flow (MBF), examined quantitatively with a direct method. Therefore, we investigated changes in MBF before, during and after EA with a new clearance method. [Methods] Ten healthy adult volunteers (8 men and 2 women; median age 30.5 years) were given EA to the trapezius at the BL 10 and GB 21 acupoints, employing the left trapezius as the non-EA side to contrast with the right trapezius as the EA side, and using stainless needles of 50 mm length and 0.18 mm gauge. MBF data were surveyed for 2 minutes before EA, for 4 minutes during EA, and for 4 minutes after EA, and a total of10minutes were analyzed l(?). Blood pressure and heart rate were simultaneously measured. [Results] MBF on the EA side increased significantly during EA (p < 0.05). On the other hand, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were shown to decrease during EA (p < 0.05). [Discussion] These results, showing that MBF increased on the EA side, while diastolic blood pressure and heart rate decreased, suggest a regional muscle pump action with EA. [Conclusion] In evaluating a new, direct means of quantitatively examining _99mTc0_4- clearance, an increase in MBF with right side EA stimulation was clearly shown. Because the present method is simpler and easier, and higher in accuracy than past methods, we believe it may be used more aggressively in future clinical studies of acupuncture/moxibustion.

Our goals are to review the literature on the definition and epidemiology of fecal incontinence (FI), the risk factors involved, available treatment options, and measurement of the quality of life (QOL) of patients with this condition. Articles included for review were searched following the guidelines set by Cochrane Reviewers' Handbook. FI was defined variously depending upon the duration, type, and amount of leakage. About 17 published papers were reviewed on the prevalence of FI that ranged from 1.4% to 50%. Potential risk factors included perianal injury/surgery, and fair/poor general health. QOL assessment using various grading scales provided an objective method of evaluating patients before and after treatment. Management included medical, physiotherapy, and surgical options. Through the range of various references, a clear definition of FI should be specified, which reflects its epidemiology in the various studies. These differences in definition would significantly affect its prevalence. Many risk factors have been sited but further epidemiological studies are necessary to elucidate FI. Understanding the etiology of the disease is an important initial step to provide adequate treatment of FI. QOL assessment provides objective and subjective method in the analysis of effectiveness of therapy.