Acupuncture Without the Puncture

Abstract

To the Editor.— Even though acupuncture is of Chinese invention, the Japanese have widely practiced this form of folk medicine for many centuries. Occasionally, an acupuncture needle may accidentally break off during therapy and if a roentgenogram is taken, the needle becomes recognizable as a slender metal wire imbedded in an organ or in soft tissues. A more dramatic roentgenographic pattern may be observed in hari , a form of acupuncture peculiar to Japan. To perform hari , the practitioner inserts thin gold needles into the subcutaneous tissues and cuts off the needle at the skin surface. When roentgenograms of these patients are seen, slender metal wires are visible that may number in the hundreds. 1 We have recently taken roentgenograms of a patient who practices Japanese folk medicine with metal foreign bodies quite different from those employed in either acupuncture or hari . Report of a Case.— An elderly Japanese woman was