Verscienta
BL13

Feishu

Star

肺俞 (Fèishū) — Lung Shu

Bladder channel · point 13

Not yet clinically reviewed

Back-Shu point of the Lung

Traditionally used for

  • Cough & breathing
  • Colds & fever
  • Pain & joints
  • Skin

Cautions & contraindications

  • No deep needling

Location

On the upper back, 1.5 cun lateral to the lower border of the spinous process of T3.

How to locate: Seat the patient leaning forward or lay them prone; count down from C7 (the most prominent spinous process at the base of the neck when the head is flexed) to T3, which sits roughly level with the medial end of the scapular spine; the point is 1.5 cun lateral to the lower edge of that spinous process, halfway to the medial border of the scapula.

Regional anatomy: Skin and subcutaneous tissue, then the upper back muscles down to erector spinae; the pleura and lung lie close beneath, so deep or lateral needling risks pneumothorax.

Distances are in cun, a proportional unit — how to measure.

Body map, back: BL13 · Upper back
Fig. — BL13 · Upper back After Albinus, 1747
Body map, back: BL13 · Upper back

BL13 · Upper back · Albinus, Tabulae sceleti et musculorum, 1747

The vertebral column — Gray's Anatomy plate Needling hazard — see Needling safety
The vertebral column Gray's Anatomy, 1918
The vertebral column — Gray's Anatomy plate Needling hazard — see Needling safety

The vertebral column · Gray's Anatomy, 1918

3D view

Approximate placement, carried over from our 2D body map onto a single adult male model (BodyParts3D) and checked against the point's location text. Shown on one side of the body. Locate the point on your patient by the location text and palpation, not by this model.

Cun on this part of the body
Between the bilateral medial borders of the scapula: 6 B-cun; this scale is half of the 6 B-cun between the two medial borders (posterior midline to one border), 3 B-cun (WHO 2008, General Guidelines, Proportional Bone (Skeletal) Measurements, p. 12).
Needle angle and depth
  1. Oblique (45° to the skin), 0.5–1 cun, towards the spine. Deadman P, Al-Khafaji M, Baker K, p. 267
  2. Transverse-oblique (about 20° to the skin), 1–1.5 cun. Deadman P, Al-Khafaji M, Baker K, p. 267
  • The lung is not drawn: the anatomical model used here does not include it as a surface. This is a limit of the model, not of the anatomy. The pneumothorax risk above still applies.

3D anatomy: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science licensed under CC Attribution 4.0 International (licence). Subset, simplified and recoloured by Verscienta — changes and licence details.

Needling

Cited needling

  • ⚠ Pneumothorax

Techniques — the source gives these as alternatives:

  1. Oblique insertion — towards the spine
    Depth 0.5–1 cun
    skindeeper
  2. Transverse-oblique insertion
    Depth 1–1.5 cun
    skindeeper
Reported mean safe needling depth, mm — Taiwanese adults (CT)
UnderweightNormalOverweight
Men 46.7 51.5 57.0
Women 40.3 44.3 53.2

CT-measured mean safe needling depths from Taiwanese adults, by sex and body size (Lin et al. 2013); population-specific and a guide only — adjust to the patient in front of you. Case reports: pneumothorax after needling at this point (1 case in Wu et al. 2015).

Depths describe average adult habitus in the cited population, never a single safe number for the patient in front of you. Palpate and adjust.

Sources (4)
  1. Lin JG, Chou PC, Chu HY. An exploration of the needling depth in acupuncture: the safe needling depth and the needling depth of clinical efficacy. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:740508 — Tables 9 (male) and 10 (female), back acupoints Supports: safe depth (measured)
  2. World Health Organization. Guidelines on basic training and safety in acupuncture. Geneva: WHO; 1999. WHO/EDM/TRM/99.1 — Section II §5.2 (Lung and pleura), p. 25 Supports: pneumothorax (names this region)
  3. Wu J, Hu Y, Zhu Y, Yin P, Litscher G, Xu S. Systematic review of adverse effects: a further step towards modernization of acupuncture in China. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:432467 — Table 1 (Pneumothorax associated with acupuncture) Supports: pneumothorax (case report)
  4. Deadman P, Al-Khafaji M, Baker K. A Manual of Acupuncture. Hove: Journal of Chinese Medicine Publications; 1998 — p. 267 Supports: techniques (names this point)

Site notes · not cited

  • No deep needling
Depth: 0.5–0.8 cun
Angle: Oblique, directed medially
⚠ Cautions: Pneumothorax risk on deep perpendicular insertion.

Functions

  • Tonifies Lung qi and yin
  • Descends and disseminates Lung qi
  • Clears heat from the Lung and resolves phlegm
  • Releases the exterior, regulates the defensive qi and benefits the skin

Indications

Cough, asthma and wheezingchronic bronchitis and shortness of breathnight sweats and afternoon fevercoughing of bloodskin disorders including acne and eczemaupper back pain

Clinical Notes

The Back-Shu of the Lung and the foundation of nearly every respiratory prescription. Cupping here is standard for acute cough and for wind invasion.

Combinations Using This Point

Dazhui, Fengmen and Feishu

GV14, BL12 and BL13 across the upper back — expels wind, firms the exterior and restores the Lung's dispersing and descending.

Similar Points

Ranked by shared patterns and conditions

Taiyuan how are these connected? (Taiyuan) Chize how are these connected? (Chize) Zhaohai how are these connected? (Zhaohai) Taixi how are these connected? (Taixi) Qihai how are these connected? (Qihai) Zusanli how are these connected? (Zusanli)

Sources

  • World Health Organization. WHO Standard Acupuncture Point Locations in the Western Pacific Region. Manila: WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific, 2008. (Location.)
  • Focks C, ed. Atlas of Acupuncture. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier, 2008. (Locating method and actions.)

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