Stimulated by Lin et al 2020,[1] Park et al 2020,[2] and Khan et al 2019.[3] Shifen Waterfalls, Shifen, Taiwan. Image by Vernon Raineil Cenzon on Unsplash, modified by MC in Lightroom. What is the risk of mortality associated with acupuncture? Well, it depends on the context of course, and I am using this title to draw together a … Continue reading Risk of mortality 2020
Stimulated by Chen et al.[1] Photo by Joyce McCown on Unsplash. This paper was published last month and has been waiting in the wings, so to speak. I was intrigued by the reference to mimicking stroke in the title. I was also under the impression that I had highlighted this adverse event before, but on checking, the previous … Continue reading Spinal epidural haematomas 2020
Stimulated by Koh et al 2019.[1] Photo by Alexander on Unsplash. I have been sitting on this paper for a week or so whilst trying to engage comments from obstetrician colleagues. Well they are all too busy catching babies, so I will be going for this blind… (the relevance of this comment may become clearer … Continue reading CAM and labour induction
Stimulated by Lee et al 2019.[1] Photo by Anton Nikolov on Unsplash.My favourite place to get images is Unsplash. It doesn’t have anything on the retroperitoneum or abscesses, so I went with loin, and then kidney, and found this lovely image of a kidney shaped lake. The title may sound to you like another adverse … Continue reading Retroperitoneal abscess with pylephlebitis
Stimulated by Moon et al 2019.[1] Photo by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash. I found this image when searching for pregnancy and Korea on Unsplash. I suspect that these women are not actually pregnant, but I strongly suspect that they are Korean, since the photographer is from South Korea herself. This blog is about a retrospective … Continue reading Safety of AT in pregnancy
Stimulated by Lin et al 2019.[1] Photo by Robina on Unsplash. Not more adverse event reports I hear you cry! No, this paper is very different, and again unexpected, despite actually being rather similar to the previous one I highlighted (sorry to be cryptic). It was just last week that I was musing at the … Continue reading Post-acupuncture pneumothorax incidence
Stimulated by Liu et al 2019.[1] Photo by Idella on Unsplash.This image is chosen to illustrate the phrase 'like trying to find a needle in a haystack', and it reminds me of the difficulties surgeons used to have in finding embedded foreign bodies. This is a noteworthy case because it is the first report I … Continue reading Laparoscopic needle fragment removal 2019
Stimulated by Tucciarone et al and Choi et al 2019.[1,2] Photo by Jairo Alzate on Unsplash. These two papers popped up on one of my PubMed searches on Monday 22nd July. They are both adverse events related to acupuncture in the region of the spine. One avoidable, and the other probably not, and both in … Continue reading Spinal AEs 2019
Stimulated by Prinsze et al 2019.[1] Photo by Cassi Josh on Unsplash. New acronyms are guaranteed to get me guessing, but these two were a challenge. They roll off the tongue pretty well as acronyms, but I had to check both! NREs are needle-related events, so that is relevant to the blog, and TTIs are transfusion-transmissible infections ie … Continue reading NREs and TTIs in the Netherlands
Inspired by Shew et al 2019.[1] Shew et al 2019.[1] This is the first reported case of a spinal epidural abscess as a possible complication of acupuncture treatment in New Zealand. It is the 15th such report I can find in the literature (on PubMed), but this report and most others cannot make irrefutable causal … Continue reading Spinal epidural abscesses
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