A cadaveric study of needle insertion at PC6 in eight wrists of four subjects and an understanding of the anatomy.
The anatomical structures vulnerable to acupuncture around the PC6 acupuncture point were investigated. Needles were inserted in PC6 of eight wrists from four cadavers to a depth of 2 cm, the forearms were dissected and the adjacent structures around the path of the needles were observed. The needles passed between the tendons of the palmaris longus and flexor carpi radialis muscles and then penetrated the flexor digitorum superficialis, flexor digitorum profundus and pronator quadratus muscles. The inserted needles were located adjacent to the median nerve. To minimise the risk of unintended injury by acupuncture, it is recommended that needles should not be inserted deeply at the PC6 acupuncture point. An understanding of the anatomical variations of the median nerve and the persistent median artery in the forearm is of clinical importance when performing acupuncture procedures.
Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Jeju National University, 66 Jejudaehakno, Jeju-Si, Jeju-Do 690-756, Republic of Korea.
Hyun
H
Joo Oh
Yee Kyoung
YK
Ko
Sa Sun
SS
Cho
Sang Pil
SP
Yoon
D015669:Acupuncture Points; D015670:Acupuncture Therapy; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001158:Arteries; D002102:Cadaver; D005260:Female; D005542:Forearm / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008475:Median Nerve; D008875:Middle Aged; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal; D009339:Needles; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D013710:Tendons; D014953:Wrist