Points of Main Revision for Safety Guidelines for Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion Practice 2025 (Revised 2nd edition)
- VernacularTitle:鍼灸安全対策ガイドライン2025年版 (改訂第2版) の主な改訂のポイント
- Author:
Masaaki SUGAWARA
1
;
Toshiya YAMAZAKI
2
Author Information
- Keywords: Safety Guidelines for Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion; adverse event; pneumothorax; difficulty removing needle; electro-acupuncture therapy
- From:Journal of the Japan Society of Acupuncture and Moxibustion 2025;75(4):416-421
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
- Abstract: Five years have passed since the release of the Safety Guidelines for Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion Practice 2020. The original plan was to amend the guidelines every five years.The devising of a revision plan (draft plan) began in 2024. This revision organized a working group in the committee for safe acupuncture, and this revision was pushed forward.In the working group, we investigated domestic and foreign adverse event reports added newly in the last five years and reviewed the additions or the contents that needed revisions. In April 2025, we took a plan that was drafted since March 2025 and displayed it on the Society's homepage to encourage public comments. We completed the Safety Guidelines for Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion Practice 2025 after referring to the public comments. Three main revisions were incorporated in the new guidelines.First, under "Ⅱ. General Requirements and Precautions for Safety," we arranged problems about a moxa cautery surgery to the facial region. In addition, we omitted a mention of direct moxibustion (scarring moxibustion) cautery and changed the notation.Second, under "Ⅳ. Preventing Adverse Events," we mentioned pneumothorax (including hemopneumothorax) as an item independent of an organ and nerve injury and subsequent care. In addition, in an item related to the difficulty in removing the needle due to a side effect (adverse response), we added that we must not perform prickle acupuncture as an instruction related to the prevention of acupuncture in such cases.Third, under "Ⅴ. Safety in Related Therapies," we performed a full-scale review of an item of electro-acupuncture therapy. We revised the definition of low-frequency acupuncture electricity treatment that was previously unclear in the Guidelines for Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion Practice 2020. We proposed the new definition after vetting the attached documents of a medical instrument in a surgery we performed following this definition.We discussed the main revisions in the Guidelines for Japanese Acupuncture and Moxibustion Practice 2025 while referring to the public comments sent for the draft plan.
