Abstract
Objectives : Fire needling has been applied as the treatment for various diseases and been getting much attention from Oriental medicine due to its excellent effectiveness as the results of clinical studies have reported. However, the research findings on the safety of treatment method, materials for the Fire needling needle materials and the possibility of burn injury during the procedure are still insufficient. Methods : A thermo imaging camera was used to confirm the temperature distribution on acupuncture needle and the treatment area during the fire needling therapy. Then the degree of thermal injury was observed by H&E stain and TUNEL assay. In addition, in order to assess the safety of acupuncture materials, we conducted MTT assay using a L6 cell line. Results : The average temperature of the skin surface was observed at $47{\sim}51^{\circ}C$ after classic fire needling and $30^{\circ}C$ after warming fire needling. Warming fire needling therapy does not induce a burn on the tissue and a third degree burn was observed locally in the muscle and skin layers after classic fire needling treatment. This confirms that hwa-acupuncture therapies do not cause major burns. According to the safety assessment test result, no cytotoxicity was detected in the warming fire needling materials. This confirms the safety of the acupuncture materials Conclusions : Various research results on the biological safety of fire needling. Since fire needling therapy induces a burn locally without leaving any scar, and as other results indicate, it is considered a safe treatment method.
