Acupuncturists may apply a needle into different locations for a given acupuncture point.1 This may raise doubts and uncertainty about the efficacy of acupuncture treatments, and cause complications in acupuncture research and education. For example, the LI4 point located in the first web-space of the hand is one of the most commonly used acupuncture points, but the placement of LI4 is slightly different in standard textbooks used for teaching acupuncture in China2 and Taiwan.3 For illustration, the two LI4 placements are named as LI4-P (proximal) and LI4-D (distal) in the following text (figure 1).

Figure 1

Acupuncture point LI4, showing different placements according to two authorities.2 3 The red crosses indicate the midpoint of the second metacarpal bone. D, distal; P, proximal.

LI4 needling may potentially injure the palmar metacarpal artery (PMA) on the radial palmar aspect of the… Click here to read original article content.

Article Courtesy of Acupuncture in Medicine Yiu Ming Wong