In general, the procedures involved in acupuncture are quite safe, but not as safe as advertised by the vast majority of acupuncturists, who consider it to be completely harmless.
Risks and side effects
In extreme cases, acupuncture can be life-threatening to the person being treated. There is a growing literature on adverse effects of this alternative technique including cases of pneumothorax, heart damage and spinal cord injury. Studies in Great Britain and Germany have indicated that around 10% of acupuncture treatments generate adverse effects.
A study published in the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine has analyzed the incidents published in the period between 2009 and 2011 in NHS centers (the British health system) as recorded by the National Patient Safety Agency.
It is important to mention that in these centers the professionals who apply acupuncture are physicians and specialized therapists. The authors of the paper have searched for reports of injuries or adverse effects where the word “acupuncture” is included and in that period 468 safety incidents were located of which 325 met the criteria for inclusion in the study. The reports were the result of a variety of causes, including oversights. In 100 patients, patients were left with needles in, sometimes several hours longer than planned or even after the staff involved had gone home. In some cases the needles had to be surgically removed.
The adverse effects reported were retained needles (31%), dizziness (30%), loss of consciousness or unresponsiveness (19%), falls (4%), bruising or muscle pain at the puncture site (2%), pneumothorax (1%) and other adverse reactions (12%).
Most of these incidents were classified as “no harm” or “mild harm,” including 162 case reports where people became dizzy or fainted when needles were placed. There were however serious cases such as five people who suffered a pneumothorax or collapsed lungs, a problem caused by the needle puncturing the pleural membranes around the lung. A study published in the journal Chest discussed a case of a pneumothorax caused by an acupuncture needle that had migrated from its original location in the shoulder to the rib cage. Another study published by Kim et al. (2012) collected five cases of patients with acupuncture needles migrated into the chest cavity and located in the lung parenchyma or pleural cavity.
Also read: What is acupuncture good for treating?
Related research
During the treatment, thirst, anorexia, increased frequency of urination and defecation, fatigue and other reactions may occur, which are normal phenomena.
Edzard Ernst of the University of Exeter, an expert in evaluating the evidence for alternative therapies has pointed out that surprisingly only one of those five cases was labeled “serious” and some were even labeled as “no harm” when a pneumothorax can be fatal. Ernst stated in an interview picked up in New Scientist by Deborah MacKenzie “Clearly, it’s not a high-risk treatment, but acupuncturists insist it’s risk-free and that’s not the case.” If a patient has difficulty breathing after treatment and the acupuncturist does not suspect a collapsed lung he or she may send the patient home, where, if the problem spreads to both lungs, the patient may die. “They deny it, they don’t realize there’s a potential problem, and that’s the problem.”
Don’t miss: How quickly does acupuncture work?
Ernst points out that studies of acupuncture have revealed 86 deaths after treatments between 1965 and 2009, mostly from pneumothorax. Another risk is the 6% of people who naturally have a hollow in their sternum near an acupuncture point. The hollow is usually covered with ligaments, so it often goes unnoticed by the physician on a normal examination. Ernst has indicated that “acupuncture needles can go through that point and pierce the membranes around the heart” with lethal effect.
An earlier paper published in 2003 in a journal on alternative therapies studied 9 databases between 1965 and 1999 and identified 202 incidents in 98 relevant articles on acupuncture from 22 countries. Complications detected included infections, primarily hepatitis, and nerve, organ and tissue damage. Other adverse effects included dermatological disorders, hypotension, dizziness and vomiting. The study indicated that a decrease in serious complications was seen from 1988 onwards due to improved hygiene and better training of acupuncturists.
