Safety
What the warnings on a point mean, and the ones that change with the patient in front of you.
The following 16 pages are in Safety.
Safety pages
Acupuncture for children
What four reviews counted of adverse events in children treated with acupuncture, what differs from adults, and what none of them could measure.
Modern research · Anyone · 7 min
Acupuncture in cancer care
What cancer guidelines, an international safe-practice panel, trials in arms at risk of lymphoedema and a meta-analysis of 65 trials say about needling people with cancer: blood counts, lymphoedema, implants and ports, irradiated skin and tumour sites.
Modern research · Anyone · 8 min
Acupuncture in older adults
What safety surveys report by age, what the BackInAction trial counted in 800 people aged 65 and over, Medicare's coverage rule, and the case reports on falls, burns and infection in older people with diabetes.
Modern research · Anyone · 8 min
After a treatment
What two large studies counted in the days after acupuncture, how often each reaction occurred, and which symptoms call for a doctor.
Modern research · Anyone · 4 min
Bleeding and anticoagulants
What studies counted when people taking warfarin or newer anticoagulants, people with haemophilia and people with low platelet counts had acupuncture, the serious bleeds reported in single cases, and what guidance bodies say.
Modern research · Anyone · 10 min
Broken and retained needles
How often incident surveys and case-report reviews record needles left in the body, where broken and deliberately embedded fragments have migrated, what guidance gives as the causes of breakage, what the needle standards test, and what the reports say about removal.
Modern research · Anyone · 11 min
Burns from moxibustion and cupping
What case reviews, burn units and clinic surveys counted of burns, blisters and scars from moxa, fire cupping and heat lamps, and what a cupping mark is.
Modern research · Anyone · 8 min
Choosing a practitioner
Who may practise acupuncture in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, China, Germany and Portugal, and the training each route requires, from the regulators' and professional bodies' own pages.
Modern research · Anyone · 9 min
Electrical stimulation and implants
What case reports, measurement studies, device makers and regulators say about electroacupuncture and TENS in people with pacemakers, defibrillators, brain and spinal stimulators, cochlear implants and joint replacements, and about current that crosses the chest.
Modern research · Anyone · 10 min
Fainting during treatment
How often prospective surveys and clinic records counted fainting during acupuncture, who it happened to, and what WHO and hospital protocols tell practitioners to do.
Modern research · Anyone · 6 min
Infection and clean needles
The hepatitis B outbreaks traced to reused needles, the rules on single-use needles that followed, the mycobacterial outbreaks traced to towels, hot packs and disinfectant since, and what guidance says about swabbing the skin.
Modern research · Anyone · 9 min
Metal allergy and acupuncture needles
What acupuncture needles are made of, the case reports of skin reactions to nickel, chromium, gold, silver and silicone coatings, the alternatives tried, and how adverse-event reviews count these reactions.
Modern research · Anyone · 10 min
Needling over the chest
Where the case series place pneumothorax and cardiac tamponade after acupuncture, how deep imaging studies found the pleura at the points involved, and what the reports say about build and timing.
Modern research · Anyone · 10 min
Needling the neck
What the WHO guidelines and case reports from China, Japan and Korea record about needles reaching the brainstem, the cervical cord, the carotid artery and the trachea, and how deep imaging studies found those structures.
Modern research · Anyone · 8 min
Pregnancy and the forbidden points
The one contraindication that is also an indication, and how to tell which reading applies.
Classical and modern · Practitioner · 5 min
Reading a point warning
What the cautions on a point page are, where they come from, and the one failure they can hide.
Classical and modern · Practitioner · 6 min