Despite acupuncture anesthesia(AA) being one of the most significant achievements in modern Chinese medicine, it cannot provide complete anesthesia effect and is eliminated from clinical use. A large number of clinical practices has confirmed that acupuncture applied to patients is far beyond the meaning and scope of traditional anesthesia and has special advantages. This article proposes a novel concept of "perioperative acupuncture" by summarizing the benefits of using acupuncture before during and after surgical operation. Acupuncture can relieve anxiety and stress during the pre-operative stage. Furthermore, using acupuncture during operation reduces the usage of narcotics, stress response, maintains the respiratory stability and homeostasis and provides protections to vital organs during surgery. After surgery, using acupuncture during the postoperative stages enhances recovery and effectively alleviates postoperative pain, prevents common postoperative discomforts such as nausea and vomiting. It may also improve patients′ long?蛳term prognoses. This article analyzes the beneficial effect of acupuncture in perioperative period, and puts forward the new concept of "perioperative acupuncture" to replace "AA". This review aims to improve the clinical efficacy of acupuncture, promote the application of acupuncture in perioperative period, accelerate the recovery of patients, reduce the perioperative mortality and improve the prognosis.