🎯 Location: On the dorsum of the hand between 1st & 2nd metacarpal bones approximately in the middle of the 2nd metacarpal bone on the radial side.
⚠️ Cautions: Traditionally forbidden in pregnancy – these are the points used to bring on labour at term. Controlled data show no excess of preterm birth or stillbirth (Carr 2015), but in pregnancy needle only on a clear obstetric indication.
🎯 Location: 3 thumb widths lateral to the GV09 at the level of the lower border of the spinous process of the 7th thoracic vertebra approximately at the level of the inferior angle of the scapula.
⚠️ Cautions: Avoid deep perpendicular needling due to risk of pneumothorax.
🎯 Location: At the area where Helix Crus disappears.
⚠️ Cautions: Adjunctive only – haematemesis, melaena or unremitting epigastric pain needs urgent medical assessment. Strict asepsis: perichondritis of the auricular cartilage is the significant risk with ear needling.
🎯 Location: 2 thumb widths lateral to the center of the umbilicus.
⚠️ Cautions: Acute appendicitis is a surgical emergency – treatment here is adjunctive at most and must never delay surgical assessment. Avoid needling over the gravid uterus after the first trimester; where used in pregnancy, needle shallowly and only on a clear obstetric indication.
🎯 Location: 8 thumb widths superior to the tip of the external malleolus, lateral to the ST38 about 2 finger breadth (middle finger) lateral to the anterior border of the tibia.
🎯 Location: On the anterior midline 4 thumb widths above the umbilicus.
⚠️ Cautions: Avoid needling over the gravid uterus after the first trimester; where used in pregnancy, needle shallowly and only on a clear obstetric indication.
Same patient; prescription changed for a later course
Point selection recorded in a clinical text or case report.
Zhang Dengbu. Acupuncture Cases from China: A Digest of Difficult and Complicated Case Histories. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1994
Substantiated by a study. ST36 also appears in a study-reported protocol for the same search. That study did not test this prescription. doi:10.1155/2020/9018701 ↗
🎯 Location: 2 thumb widths lateral to the center of the umbilicus.
⚠️ Cautions: Acute appendicitis is a surgical emergency – treatment here is adjunctive at most and must never delay surgical assessment. Avoid needling over the gravid uterus after the first trimester; where used in pregnancy, needle shallowly and only on a clear obstetric indication.
🎯 Location: 8 thumb widths superior to the tip of the external malleolus, lateral to the ST38 about 2 finger breadth (middle finger) lateral to the anterior border of the tibia.
🎯 Location: 3 thumb widths lateral to the GV09 at the level of the lower border of the spinous process of the 7th thoracic vertebra approximately at the level of the inferior angle of the scapula.
⚠️ Cautions: Avoid deep perpendicular needling due to risk of pneumothorax.
