Huantiao and Chengfu
Star環跳、承扶 (Huántiào, Chéngfú)
Modern Chinese point-pair (对穴) teaching, as compiled by Guo Changqing and colleagues at the School of Acupuncture, Moxibustion and Tuina, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.
Points
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Meeting point of the Gallbladder and Bladder channels at the hip; expels wind-damp and relieves sciatic pain.
Patient lying on the side with the upper hip and knee flexed. Locate the greater trochanter and the sacral hiatus; the point is one third of the way from the trochanter along the line joining them. Insert obliquely downward 2.0–3.0 cun through the subcutaneous layer to obturator internus, seeking local aching and numbness that radiates down the leg.
- ⚠ Nerve
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Upper thigh point of the Bladder channel; frees the channel through the buttock and thigh.
At the midpoint of the gluteal fold on the back of the thigh. Insert perpendicularly 1.5–2.5 cun; the needle reaches the region of the sciatic nerve trunk, and the aching numbness should radiate to the foot.
Needling Safety
Cited hazards for these points. Tick what applies to the patient to see the cautions that follow from it.
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GB30 Huantiao
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⚠ Nerve injury has been reported after needling this point. Wu J, Hu Y, Zhu Y, Yin P, Litscher G, Xu S 2015, Table 3 (Peripheral nerve injury)
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No cited needling data yet for BL36. No flag here does not mean no risk.
Treatment Principle
Benefit the lower back and legs; expel wind and damp.
Indications
Method
GB30 is needled with the patient side-lying, obliquely downward 2.0–3.0 cun; BL36 perpendicularly 1.5–2.5 cun at the gluteal fold. At both, the aim is a sensation carried down the leg. The book gives no retention time or moxibustion instructions for this pair.
⚠ Cautions
Both points lie over the sciatic nerve. A single radiating sensation to the foot is the intended response; do not keep lifting and thrusting to reproduce it, and withdraw slightly if the patient reports sharp electric pain.
About
Two deep points over the buttock and upper thigh for pain, weakness and numbness running from the lower back down the leg, including sciatica and the lower limb of hemiplegia.
Rationale
GB30 is the meeting point of the Gallbladder and Bladder channels, the two yang channels that carry sciatic pain down the lateral and posterior leg; BL36 is on the Bladder channel at the gluteal fold. Needled together they command both routes of the pain from the buttock, and their deep position over the sciatic nerve gives the characteristic propagated sensation to the foot.
Sources
- Guo Changqing (ed.). Acupuncture of Acupoint Combinations: Quick Lookups. Daylesford: Heart Space Publications, 2020 (English edition; © China Science and Technology Press). ISBN 978-0-6489215-5-4. Chapter 4, combination 12.
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