Doctors conducting an X-ray evaluation of a 65-year-old South Korean woman suffering from severe knee joint pain uncovered an unexpected “gold mine”: hundreds of tiny gold acupuncture needles left inside her knee tissue.
The patient had previously been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, a degenerative condition in which joint cartilage and bone break down over time, leading to pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. Although she tried pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medications, the treatments failed to adequately ease her symptoms and caused stomach discomfort instead. With worsening pain, she turned to acupuncture.
According to doctors who described the case in a recent report in The New England Journal of Medicine, the acupuncture involved needles—apparently made of gold—that were intentionally left in place within the tissue to provide ongoing stimulation.
However, specialists say that leaving foreign objects inside the body can carry significant risks. Dr. Ali Guermazi, a radiology professor at Boston University who was not involved in the case, warned that foreign materials retained in the body can trigger inflammation, abscesses, and infections. They can also interfere with medical imaging. “The needles may obscure some of the anatomy,” Guermazi said.
The body also may react defensively to implanted materials. “The human body wants to get rid of the foreign object,” he explained, describing immune responses that may include inflammation and the development of fibrous tissue around the object.
Guermazi added that retained needles may complicate future diagnostic procedures. “The patient can’t go into an MRI because needles left in the body may move, and damage an artery,” he said.
While acupuncture is widely used for pain—particularly joint pain—evidence supporting its effectiveness remains limited. Still, the practice is popular, and inserting sterile gold threads or needles around joints is described as a common approach for arthritis in parts of Asia.
In the United States, acupuncture use remains substantial, with a 2007 survey from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine estimating that about 3.1 million adults and 150,000 children had received acupuncture.
Would you like this rewritten in a more formal “straight news” style (tighter, less commentary) or a more explanatory style that includes more context about osteoarthritis and MRI/foreign-body risks?
