Acupuncture for Chronic Venous Ulceration

Abstract

Acupuncture was used to treat a 69-year-old man for bilateral ankle pain related to his rheumatoid arthritis. This led to a dramatic improvement in one of his chronic venous leg ulcers. There is very little recent literature on such cases, where acupuncture may be a useful additional treatment.

Effectiveness of acupuncture, special dressings and simple, low-adherence dressings for healing venous leg ulcers in primary healthcare: study protocol for a cluster-randomized open-labeled trial

“…In these areas, moreover, there are raised levels of NO in the blood after acupuncture [ 35 , 36 ], which suggests that the acupunctural stimulation of the sensorial nerves may act as an in vivo modulator of NO levels [ 32 ]. Although studies have been carried out to examine the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating VLUs, these have been of poor quality and have reported contradictory results [ 37 - 39 ].…”

Electroacupuncture

“…9,22,23 More recent evidence even suggests that ultralow microcurrent (in the mA to nA range) facilitated accelerated healing and appeared to offset the effect of a person's age on wound healing. Variability was mostly noted in the timing of individual sessions, number of treatments, length or duration of treatment cycle, and optimal treatment amplitude in which the electrical current amplitude was often titrated to patient tolerance.…”

Acupuncture as Add-On Treatment in the Management of a Patient with Ecthyma Gangrenosum

“…Anecdotal case reports suggest a benefi cial effect on leg ulcers. 1 A situation occurred in primary care where acupuncture as add-on treatment to usual care coincided with an improvement of the wound healing process in a condition which proved to be diffi cult to treat.…”