Acupuncture to Traditional Chinese Orthopedics: A Journey from the West

Abstract

We share an expanding horizon of acupuncture at present. Not only has acupuncture become more differential and more sophisticated, with an increasing number of well-designed studies on its effects, but there is also an increasing awareness of the related techniques, whether derived from an Eastern or Western background. With increasingly complex clinical pathways, however, the question of professional differentiation becomes more imperative. Some of the best indications for acupuncture lie in the field of the locomotor system and there are a number of treatment approaches to the locomotor system that form Traditional Chinese Orthopedics.

This paper aims to provide an introduction to Traditional Chinese Orthopedics to a Western audience. There is no professional body of Traditional Chinese Orthopedics in the West as yet, so the briefing herein covers the biographical lines of personal exposition, development, and training as a specialist in Traditional Chinese Orthopedics and Traumatology.

The most important relevant fields are discussed so as to open the dialogue that may contribute to turning the role of acupuncture from an ill-understood panacea in pseudoholistic healthcare delivery to a valuable and versatile gem in multimodal therapeutic concepts of integrated medicine.