Acupuncture Treatment for Acute Ankle Injury in the Emergency Department: A Preliminary Case Report.

Acupuncture is an ancient medical treatment that is increasingly attracting the interest of the public. It is a complementary therapy that is widely used for management of pain, especially chronic discomfort caused by migraine, low-back pain and osteoarthritis of the knee(¹⁻³). The evidence base for the effectiveness of acupuncture and its clinical applications is controversial, and although its efficacy and safety in the management of acute pain have been demonstrated, the quality of this modality is still questionable. The present study reports a case of acute ankle injury, which was treated with acupuncture. A 33-year-old man presented with acute twisted ankle injury. He had pain with swelling around the ankle, and he was experiencing difficulty in walking. His clinical diagnosis was acute ankle sprain with severe pain. Several drug treatments are used for pain control, but in this case, we used acupuncture. After treatment, his pain diminished significantly with a decrease in VAS pain level from 8 to 4 in 20 minutes. At follow-up after one month, we found no skin infection in this case.