Table 1.
Estimated AE incidences associated with acupuncture treatment compared with previous studies*
| Author (year) Country |
Design | Condition | No. of patients | AE incidence (per 10 000 sessions) | Most frequent AEs | Authors’ comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yamashita (2000)44 Japan |
Prospective survey | NR† | 391 | 6849 | Tiredness, drowsiness, symptom aggravation, minor bleeding on needle withdrawal | ‘Although some adverse reactions associated with acupuncture were common even in standard practice, they were transient and mild.’ |
| White (2001)45 UK |
Prospective survey | NR‡ | NR | 671 | Bleeding or haematoma, needling pain | ‘All AEs were mild and no serious AE occurred.’ |
| Witt (2009)5 Germany |
Prospective survey | Chronic OA, LBP, neck pain, headache, allergic rhinitis, asthma or dysmenorrhoea | 229 230 | 111 | Bleeding or haematoma, pain | ‘Acupuncture provided by physicians is a relatively safe treatment.’ |
| Park (2009)7 Korea |
Retrospective survey | CVA, headache, hypertension, dizziness, numbness and others | 1095 | 339 | Minor bleeding | ‘Acupuncture treatment is safe if the practitioners are well educated, trained, and experienced.’ |
| Present study (2013) Various |
Systematic review | Various conditions in pregnant women | 2460 | 131§/188¶ | Needling pain | ‘Acupuncture during pregnancy appears to be associated with few AEs when correctly applied.’ |
*Incidence rate may slightly vary as definition of AEs, survey methods or acupuncture methods are all different across studies.
†Patients receiving acupuncture treatments at Tsukuba College of Technology Clinic in Japan.
‡Patients receiving acupuncture treatments from medical doctors and physiotherapists in the UK.
§AE incidence varies: 193 per 10 000 acupuncture sessions when the analysis included reported AEs in the original reports; 131 per 10 000 acupuncture sessions when the calculation is limited to the AEs evaluated as certain, probable or possible in the causality assessment.
¶AE incidence varies: 479 per 10 000 when the calculation is expanded to poor pregnancy outcomes which were not originally reported as acupuncture-related AEs and, among them, 188 were evaluated as certain, probable or possible in the causality assessment.
AE, adverse event; CVA, cerebrovascular accident; LBP, low back pain; NR, not reported; OA, osteoarthritis.