Postoperative pain is the chronic pain syndromes after surgery. Pain serves a biological function. It signals the presence of damage or disease within the body. In the case of postoperative pain it is the result of the surgery, but the principles outlined apply also to the management of other acute pains such as those following burns or injury.
Both the body surfaces and the subcutaneous tissues tend to be tightened up after surgery, hence it resulted in a poor blood circulation associated with chills and it would be a cause of the chronic pain syndromes.

Postoperative pain management remains a significant challenge for healthcare providers. Many patients experience pain after surgery, with about 86% reporting moderate, severe, or extreme pain. Opioids remain the mainstay for postoperative pain control. However, opioid analgesics are associated with undesirable side-effects, including nausea, vomiting, pruritus, sedation, dizziness, and decreased gut motility which can lead to delayed postoperative recovery. The use of adjunct analgesics that provide opioid-sparing effects and decrease the incidence of opioid-related side-effects is therefore useful. Hence, acupuncture seems ideal solution for treating postoperative pain.

Acupuncture, a component of traditional Chinese medicine, is a well-known and widely used treatment for pain and other conditions that has been employed in China for more than 3000 yr. In China, even acupuncture anesthesia is employed.
The goal for postoperative pain management is to reduce or eliminate pain and discomfort with a minimum of side effects as cheaply as possible.
There are quite a few studies that show that acupuncture is a good analgesic.

Therapeutic benefits of acupuncture for chronic pain patients have been clearly identified in recent clinical trials. Underlying mechanisms of acupuncture action mediated by endogenous opioids have been well demonstrated. The existence of pain inhibitory systems in the central nervous system has also been clarified and acupuncture seems to be a potent stimulus for activating the analgesic systems, although the pain mechanisms in acute and chronic states are essentially different.

It was known that cells release adenosine triphosphate (aka ATP; a molecule involved in metabolism) when stimulated mechanically, electrically or with heat. ATP is also known to bind to certain receptors that locally reduce pain.
Scientists found that acupuncture treatment correlated with increases in ATP concentration.

A study in the journal Nature Neuroscience (Maiken Nedergaard et al) has uncovered a mechanism that the tissues around the treated acupoint get flooded with adenosine, a chemical that provides relief by preventing pain signals from reaching the brain.

Acupuncture treatment do not have side effect such as a loss of appetite, and therefore perioperative acupuncture is ideal for acute postoperative pain management.

Postoperative pain management remains a significant challenge for all healthcare providers. The objective of this systematic review was to quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture and related techniques as adjunct analgesics for acute postoperative pain management. We searched the databases of Medline (1966-2007), CINAHL, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (2006), and Scopus for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using acupuncture for postoperative pain management. We extracted data about postoperative opioid consumption, postoperative pain intensity, and opioid-related side-effects. Combined data were analysed using a random effects model. Fifteen RCTs comparing acupuncture with sham control in the management of acute postoperative pain were included. Weighted mean difference for cumulative opioid analgesic consumption was -3.14 mg (95% confidence interval, CI: -5.15, -1.14), -8.33 mg (95% CI: -11.06, -5.61), and -9.14 mg (95% CI: -16.07, -2.22) at 8, 24, and 72 h, respectively. Postoperative pain intensity (visual analogue scale, 0-100 mm) was also significantly decreased in the acupuncture group at 8 and 72 h compared with the control group. The acupuncture treatment group was associated with a lower incidence of opioid-related side-effects such as nausea (relative risk, RR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.53, 0.86), dizziness (RR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.52, 0.81), sedation (RR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.61, 0.99), pruritus (RR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.59, 0.96), and urinary retention (RR: 0.29; 95% CI: 0.12, 0.74). Perioperative acupuncture may be a useful adjunct for acute postoperative pain management.

Introduction

Acupuncture, a component of traditional Chinese medicine, is a well-known and widely used treatment for pain and other conditions that has been employed in China for more than 3000 yr. There have been increasing numbers of clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of acupuncture and related techniques as an adjuvant method for postoperative analgesia. Therefore, we performed this systematic review to quantitatively evaluate the available evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture and related techniques in postoperative pain management.