Peer-Review ReportRisks and Causes of Cervical Cord and Medulla Oblongata Injuries due to Acupuncture
Introduction
Acupuncture is a traditional East Asian medical technique in which needles are inserted at particular points on the body to treat a wide range of diseases. At present, acupuncture has become one of the most popular alternative medicines worldwide (12). To our knowledge, 25 cervical cord or medulla oblongata injuries due to acupuncture needles have been reported. We report such a case and discuss the risks and causes of cervical cord or medulla oblongata injuries due to acupuncture.
Section snippets
History of Present Illness and Physical Examination
A 47-year-old, Japanese man subjected himself to self-acupuncture for more than 10 years due to his persistent headaches and neck stiffness. The patient repeatedly used a disposable, fine acupuncture needle made of stainless steel and would regularly place the needle into his neck after taking a bath. However, during one occasion, the acupuncture needle accidentally broke and remained in the patient's neck. The patient discovered the broken needle, but he was unable to remove it. Out of fear
Complications
Complications with acupuncture needles are not rare. Pneumothorax (6), cardiac tamponade (8), and transverse myelopathy (25) due to acupuncture needles have been reported. Reviewing cases of the previous cervical or brainstem injuries in addition to our report, as shown in Table 1 (1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29), the age of patients ranged from 18 to 73 years, and the mean and standard deviation were 50.3 years and 14.1 years, respectively. Eighteen
Conclusion and Perspective
Although self-acupuncture is legally prohibited in Japan, five cases (19.2%) were attributed to self-acupuncture. Our patient purchased acupuncture needles from an Oriental medical bookstore. Acupuncture needles are also freely available by various routes, including the Internet. It is, needless to say, dangerous for laypersons to stick needles into their own bodies without adequate knowledge and technique. Embedded needle acupuncture is also dangerous and hazardous to health, even if there is
Acknowledgment
The authors are deeply grateful to Henry Wu for his assistance with the manuscript and his suggestions.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.