Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Reduction of Discomfort and Side-Effects of Surgery

Abstract

Surgery for cancer has made significant progression in recent years and these developments have been in tandem with various adjuvant treatments including chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The concurrent use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), a 5,000-year-old art, with surgery has not been popular among those who practice Western style medicine. This is largely due to the different philosophies and relatively lack of scientific evidence of TCM. There is however current intense research on TCM as novel or additional treatment methods for cancer surgery. This chapter reviews the current use of TCM in cancer surgery and the intention is not to coerce the surgeon into using TCM but to increase the awareness of surgeons and provide a stimulus for research. The pathogenesis of cancer according to TCM is discussed. Traditional Chinese medicine has been used successfully during the perioperative period to relieve intestinal obstruction, reduce postoperative ileus and reduce urinary retention after rectal surgery. Traditional Chinese medicine has also been shown to modulate the inflammatory response of surgical stress. Although the reported results of TCM have been exciting thus far, problems of lack of consensus on treatment regimes and questions on the reliability, validity and applicability of published studies prevent its widespread use and these issues will be discussed in this chapter. There is thus a pressing need for surgeons to work with TCM physicians in the continuing research on this area in order to unleash its full potential for our patients.