DRY NEEDLING CAUSING A PNEUMOTHORAX

There are a lot of unpleasant feelings between acupuncturists and physical therapists regarding the practice of "dry needling." I go over much of this in my book, but suffice to say, dry needling is acupuncture. Dry needling is just a small part of acupuncture; however, I also don't feel that dry needling in any way encapsulates acupuncture. If it did, then there would not be much to acupuncture, and that's simply not true. Acupuncture is a stand-alone medicine that can treat any problem. That said, dry needling is a scratch on the surface of what acupuncture is in its totality.

In this video, a physical therapist discusses what NOT to do in order to avoid giving a patient a pneumothorax. The depth of which he drives the needle is unbelievable to anyone with a basic understanding of anatomy.

I believe at about 0:34 he punctures the lung as you can see the patient buck. At 0:41 the needle is buried. The needle looks to be a minimum of 40mm (tip to the bottom of the handle), and should only be advanced about 10mm in this relatively think (mock) patient. It was advanced nearly 40mm.