Acupuncture is one of the many skills used within physiotherapy to aid the management of pain and inflammation by stimulating the body’s own healing chemicals in aiding recovery and enhancing rehabilitation.

The body has an innate ability to self repair. the use of Acupuncture, Acupressure or Electro-Acupuncture enhances these natural self repair mechanisms to enhance recovery and improve repair timeframes.

Acupuncture can be used to support recovery in both Musculoskeletal and Women’s Health conditions.

Conventional

Conventional Acupuncture involves the use of single use, pre-sterilised, disposable needles of varying widths, lengths and materials that pierce the skin at the Acupuncture points. The Physiotherapist will determine the locations of the Acupuncture points, based upon the assessment of the cause of the imbalance. A number of needles may be used at each treatment and these are typically left in position for some 20-30 minutes before being removed.

Trigger point Acupuncture may also be used to facilitate relaxation in specific muscles following trauma such as whiplash injury; for longer term unresolving muscle pain such as repetitive strain injury (RSI) or as a means to obtain increased muscle length in order to aid stretch and rehabilitation such as sports injuries . Here the needle is placed into the affected muscle until it is felt to relax under the needle and then removed. Trigger point needling is often much quicker and therefore does not require the 20-30 minute treatment time.

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Electro-Acupuncture

Following the detailed physiotherapy assessment, inserted needles can be coupled to the electrodes of an electro-acupuncture apparatus. These units are designed to deliver variable amplitudes and frequencies of electrical impulses. Low frequency electro-acupuncture is intended to contribute to the mechanism of pain reduction, especially stimulating chemicals from the brain which will aid analgesia, relaxation and sleep.

It is particularly useful in the more chronic pain problems.

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Content provided by the AACP.