P02.51. Acupuncture treatment for hospitalized patients on anticoagulant therapy- a safety study

Purpose As acupuncture becomes increasingly available in allopathic medical settings, healthcare providers raise concerns about patient safety. One such concern is excessive bleeding. Although “bleeding” and “bloodletting” are at times recognized by practitioners of Chinese Medicine as therapeutic techniques, bleeding has been described in the modern acupuncture research literature as an adverse event. The purpose of this study is to examine the incidence of bleeding at acupuncture points in hospitalized patients on anticoagulants.