Presentation summary

The patient was seen preoperatively for awake surgery for recurrent infiltrating glioma.
During the first operation in 2017, clonic manifestations occured during the awakened phase.
Surgical intervention was completed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy, which had to be terminated, due to be poorly tolerated by the patient.

At the end of 2020, an MRI performed following neurological issues, showed tumor recurrence. The patientwas extremely anxious about a new surgical treatment of the same type.
A initial acupuncture consultation took place a week before the operation, with the aim of eliminating this excessive fear.

During the treatment, the patient displayed a significant emotional distress. However, a feeling of relaxationwas noted at the end of the session.

The patient was seen again two days before the operation; she reported have to slept well and was feeling calm.

A preparatory session was then undertaken. On arrival at the operating room, the patient was relaxed, and the anesthetist reported to haveuse half of thedose of anesthetizing drugs.

Intraoperatively, the placement and handling of the needles allowed the patient to remain calm, and this time,no clonic manifestations were observed.

The surgeon performed electrocoagulation of the falx cerebri three times, which did not cause any pain, as it isusually described in the literature.

The effectiveness of acupuncture is probably due to the synergistic action the points used (L2, L3, LI4, GB41,TW5), as discussed in this paper.