Adverse Events of Acupuncture: A Systematic Review of Case Reports

Table 5

Central nervous system injuries associated with acupuncture (9 cases).

First author/year (reference)	Country	Cases age/sex	Disease treated	Punctured site	Complication	Onset after acupuncture	Practitioner	Followup
Choo 2000 [71]	USA	44/M	Neck pain	GV16 (neck)	Acute intracranial hemorrhage	Immediately	Not specified	Recovered (10 d)
Hama 2004 [72]	Japan	70/M	Not stated	Not stated (broken needle)	Medulla oblongata injury, left facial paresthesia	3 wk	Not specified	Recovered (1 y)
Eftekhar 2005 [73]	Iran	74/M	LBP	Lumbar region	Epidural hematoma	Shortly	Not specified	Recovered (after surgery)
Chen 2006 [74]	Taiwan	30/M	Back pain	Upper back	Epidural haematoma	1 h	Acupuncturist	Recovered (after surgery)
Ulloth 2007 [75]	USA	52/M	LBP	L1, L2, and L3 Vertebrae (embedded needles)	Cerebrospinal fluid fistula	14 mo	Acupuncturist	Recovered (after surgery)
Liou 2007 [55]	Taiwan	29/M	Stiffness of neck	Epidural space at C2 level (a broken needle)	Spinal Cord Injury	3 y	“Nonmedical practitioner”	Recovered (after surgery)
Tsukazaki 2008 [76]	Japan	32/F	Not stated	GV16 (neck)	Subarachnoid hemorrhage	1 d	Oriental medicine clinic	Not stated
Lee 2011 [77]	Korea	58/F	Quadri- paresis neck pain	Neck	Cervical epidural hematoma	1 h	Family physician	Recovered (8 wk)
Heo 2011 [56]	Korea	65/M	Not stated	Posterior neck	Intracranial hemorrhage and cerebellar infarction	3 d	Unauthorized acupuncturist	Recovered (1 mo)