At a glance
Years of diffuse neck, shoulder and back pain after a car accident — gone after each treatment, and finally for good.
Presentation
A 45-year-old patient came to the clinic with widespread pain following a car accident: severe pain through the middle back, less severe but persistent pain across the upper and lower back and over the shoulder blades, and severe pain at the neck and shoulders.
She arrived skeptical. She had tried every kind of treatment from medical doctors and other practitioners over three to four years without much relief, and when she walked in she looked grumpy and didn't really believe we could help her.
Diagnosis
The pattern was Qi stagnation at the muscle level along the Urinary Bladder, Gall Bladder, Triple Warmer, and Small Intestine channels — the meridians that cover the back, shoulders, and sides of the neck — combined with blood stasis. The trauma of the accident had locked Qi and blood in place across a wide area, which is why the pain was so diffuse and so stubborn.
Treatment
Treatment mapped each region of pain to specific points, using the principle of balancing channels from the arms and treating local areas directly:
- mid-back pain — treated with ashi points in the middle of the upper arm along the Lung and Heart channels
- pain over the shoulder blades — treated through the LR-4-to-5 area on the forearm
- upper and lower back pain — treated through the LU-5-to-9 area on the forearm
- neck and shoulder pain — treated with LU-8 (Jingqu), LU-9 (Taiyuan), HT-4 (Lingdao), HT-7 (Shenmen), and SP-6 (Sanyinjiao)
A herbal formula was prescribed to break the Qi stagnation and blood stasis and relieve the pain between sessions.
Result
The pain was completely gone after each treatment and the relief lasted for several days at a time. Gradually the pain-free stretches grew longer and longer until the pain stopped coming back at all. After years of trying everything, her relief was visible the moment the needles went in — as she put it, her face broke into a smile on the table, and she signed up to finish the course and clear the pain for good.
This reflects an individual patient experience, not clinical trial data.
Results vary from person to person depending on the condition, its severity, and how an individual responds to treatment. TCM and acupuncture are not a substitute for care from your physician or another regulated health professional. If you’re dealing with a serious or urgent symptom, please see a doctor first.