THE DEVELOPMENTAL ANATOMY OF THE AURICLE AND ITS CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS WITH AURICULAR ACUPUNCTURE/AURICULOTHERAPY

Abstract

Auricular acupuncture/auriculotherapy is a treatment based on the detection and stimulation of acupuncture points on the auricle. The embryological hypothesis of ear acupuncture was launched in the 1970’s by Bourdiol of France. All organs develop from the foetus’s three germ layers, the endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm. The ear is one of the few anatomic structures of the human body which is developed from each of these three primary tissue types. The internal organs except for the heart and the kidneys develop from the endoderm. The endodermal organs are represented in the concha and this part of the ear is innervated mainly by the vagus nerve. The skin, endocrine and nervous systems develop from the ectoderm. These organs are represented in the tail of the helix and the lobule. These parts of the ear are innervated mostly by a branch of cervical plexus. The locomotor and lymphatic systems develop from the mesoderm tissue. These organs are to be found represented in the antihelix, the scapha and fossa triangularis of the auricle. The trigeminal nerve innervates these areas on the auricle. In the context of these embryological and anatomical knowledge, auricular acupuncture is described with its clinical implications.