Battlefield Acupuncture: Update

The update to the “Battlefield Acupuncture”1 technique, as recommended by Niemtzow, consists of first following the orginal protocol to determine the dominant ear. If—during this process—a single gold ASP needle (Sedatelac, Chemin des Muriers, F-68540, Irigny, France; obtainable from www.omsmedical.com) reduces the pain several points down on the pain scale, then a silver or stainless steel ASP needle may be placed just touching the gold ASP needle to achieve an even more substantial pain reduction. Niemtzow does not recommend doubling up on the gold ASP needles if there is no pain attenuation. In the course of future description of acupoints associated with this technique, Burns suggests the use of “zone” to replace acupoint; i.e., Cingulate Gyrus zone. The rationale is that the exact point may not be exactly determinable even with an electronic point finder.