Acupuncture is unique to Chinese medicine and is widely used in practice. In order to avoid the complication of pneumothorax due to needle puncture of the lungs, we developed an ultrasound detection acupuncture (UDA) approach to measure the safe needle depth to improve patient safety. This study established a UDA training program and recruited trainees in our hospital to validate the effectiveness of the program. The trainees attended an eight-hour course, and practiced their skills using an acupuncture simulator model of GB21. Pre- and post-test data were analyzed. The level of satisfaction of the trainees was assessed by interview. In total, 16 trainees completed the course. Kendall’s coefficient for the program was 0.82, and the average CVI was 0.98, showing good reliability and validity. Trainees exhibited significant improvement in terms of reduction of the incidence of pneumothorax after completing the course (P < 0.05), and the trainees were satisfied with the teaching of the ultrasound skill. Feedback from interviews showed that use of ultrasound to measure the safe needle depth may improve the mastery of acupuncture point GB21 and reduce the fear of causing pneumothorax.
Part of the book: Acupuncture