Acupuncture

After reviewing the existing body of knowledge, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed acupuncture needles from the category of "experimental medical devices."

The FDA now regulates acupuncture needles, just as it does other devices such as surgical scalpels and hypodermic syringes, under good manufacturing practices and single-use standards of sterility.
                                             The program organizes major conferences that produce consensus statements and technology assessment statements on controversial issues in medicine important to health care providers, patients, and the general public. The following statement is from the NIH Consensus Development Statement on Acupuncture on November 3-5, 1997.

Acupuncture as a therapeutic intervention is widely practiced in the United States. There have been many studies of its potential usefulness.

However, many of these studies provide equivocal results because of design, sample size, and other factors.

The issue is further complicated by inherent difficulties in the use of appropriate controls, such as placebo and sham acupuncture groups.