'Water needle' acupuncture gets to the point
Editor's note:
While hospital patients often feel vulnerable, the heart-warming care and excellent skills of medical staff provide warmth and confidence. From blood drawing, bone setting, to surgery, many medical staff have unique skills, which are a reflection of their craftsmanship and pursuit of a high-quality health service.
Shot by Jiang Xiaowei. Edited by Jiang Xiaowei. Reported by Cai Wenjun. Subtitles by Cai Wenjun.
Acupuncture points.
Dr Wang Feng from Xiangshan Hospital's acupuncture department.
Acupuncture is one of the most popular traditional Chinese medicine skills known to the public. However, most people only consider it as needles inserted into acupoints. There are actually various practices of acupuncture such as "fire needle" and "water needle."
"Fire needle" is heating the needles and inserted them into the body with the function of acupuncture and warmth. This integrates the benefits of both acupuncture and moxibustion.
While "water needle" means doctors inject liquid medicine or saline water into acupoints to enhance treatment effects. In medical field, it is called acupoint injection.
"Acupoint injection is a perfect mixture of Western and traditional Chinese medicine," said Wang Feng from Xiangshan's acupuncture department.
It was developed in the 1950s, when Dr Li Peicheng at Shanghai Xiangshan Hospital creatively combined meridian theory in TCM with modern medicine's pharmaceutical mechanism to develop a new acupuncture practice. Doctors inject liquid medicine or saline water into the acupoints for longer and better treatment effect.
"Li finished and published the first article about acupoint injection in 1956 and spent dozens of years on evidence-based research. So far acupoint injection has been widely used in chronic disease treatment and rehabilitation therapy," Wang said.
A women surnamed Gu is a regular patient to Xiangshan's acupuncture department. She suffered complications of meningioma.
"Although I have received a surgery to remove the tumor, I have been suffering complications like poor mobility of the arms and legs," she said. "So I came here for acupoint injection and other traditional Chinese therapy. My condition has improved a lot so far."
Acupoint injection is a perfect mixture of Western and traditional Chinese medicine.
The liquid medicine is injected into the acupoint.
