PMID- 22936058
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20130110
LR  - 20161125
IS  - 1878-6847 (Electronic)
IS  - 0924-6479 (Linking)
VI  - 24
IP  - 3
DP  - 2012 Jan 1
TI  - Patient safety incidents from acupuncture treatments: a review of reports to the 
      National Patient Safety Agency.
PG  - 163-9
LID - 10.3233/JRS-2012-0569 [doi]
AB  - BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is frequently employed to treat chronic pain syndromes or 
      other chronic conditions. Nevertheless, there is a growing literature on adverse 
      events (AEs) from treatments including pneumothorax, cardiac tamponade and spinal 
      cord injury. Acupuncture is provided in almost all NHS pain clinics and by an 
      increasing number of GP's and physiotherapists. Considering acupuncture's 
      popularity, its safety has become an important public health issue. OBJECTIVES: 
      To evaluate the harm caused to patients through acupuncture treatments within NHS 
      organisations. METHODS: The National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) 
      database was searched for incidents reported from 1st January 2009 to 31st 
      December 2011. The free text fields of all reports received from all healthcare 
      settings and specialties were searched for the keyword 'acupuncture'. All 
      relevant incidents were reviewed to provide a qualitative theme of the harm to 
      patients. RESULTS: 468 patient safety incidents were identified; 325 met our 
      inclusion criteria for analysis. Adverse events reported include retained needles 
      (31%), dizziness (30%), loss of consciousness/unresponsive (19%), falls (4%), 
      Bruising or soreness at needle site (2%), Pneumothorax (1%) and other adverse 
      reactions (12%). The majority (95%) of the incidents were categorised as low or 
      no harm. CONCLUSIONS: A number of AEs are recorded after acupuncture treatments 
      in the NHS but the majority is not severe. However, miscategorisation and 
      under-reporting may distort the overall picture. Acupuncture practitioners should 
      be aware of, and be prepared to manage, any significant harm from treatments.
FAU - Wheway, Jayne
AU  - Wheway J
AD  - Patient Safety Division, National Patient Safety Agency, London, UK.
FAU - Agbabiaka, Taofikat B
AU  - Agbabiaka TB
FAU - Ernst, Edzard
AU  - Ernst E
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Review
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Int J Risk Saf Med
JT  - The International journal of risk & safety in medicine
JID - 9100907
SB  - IM
MH  - Acupuncture Therapy/*adverse effects/statistics & numerical data
MH  - Chronic Pain/*therapy
MH  - Databases, Factual
MH  - Humans
MH  - Patient Safety/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - State Medicine/*statistics & numerical data
MH  - United Kingdom
EDAT- 2012/09/01 06:00
MHDA- 2013/01/11 06:00
CRDT- 2012/09/01 06:00
PHST- 2012/09/01 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/09/01 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2013/01/11 06:00 [medline]
AID - R1X8331435237065 [pii]
AID - 10.3233/JRS-2012-0569 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Int J Risk Saf Med. 2012 Jan 1;24(3):163-9. doi: 10.3233/JRS-2012-0569.