Verscienta
BL43

Gaohuang

Star

膏肓 (Gāohuāng) — Vital Region Shu

Bladder channel · point 43

Not yet clinically reviewed

Outer Bladder line

Traditionally used for

  • Cough & breathing
  • Colds & fever
  • Digestion
  • Fertility & vitality
  • Sleep
  • Mood & calm
  • Pain & joints

Cautions & contraindications

  • No deep needling

Location

On the upper back, 3 cun lateral to the lower border of the spinous process of T4.

How to locate: With the patient seated and the shoulders relaxed, the medial end of the scapular spine is usually level with T3; move down one spinous process to T4 (or count down four from C7). The point is 3 cun lateral to the lower border of T4, level with BL14, near the medial border of the scapula.

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

Body map, back: BL43 · Upper back
Fig. — BL43 · Upper back After Albinus, 1747
Body map, back: BL43 · Upper back

BL43 · 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), 0.3–0.5 cun. Deadman P, Al-Khafaji M, Baker K, p. 303
  • 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
  1. Oblique insertion
    Depth 0.3–0.5 cun
    skindeeper
Reported mean safe needling depth, mm — Taiwanese adults (CT)
UnderweightNormalOverweight
Men 29.8 33.4 39.8
Women 23.0 31.5 39.6

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.

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 (3)
  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. Deadman P, Al-Khafaji M, Baker K. A Manual of Acupuncture. Hove: Journal of Chinese Medicine Publications; 1998 — p. 303 Supports: techniques (names this point)

Site notes · not cited

  • No deep needling
Depth: 0.5 cun
Angle: Oblique, directed medially
Moxibustion: Classically the point for extended courses of moxibustion in chronic depletion — "when all else fails, moxa Gaohuang."
⚠ Cautions: Pneumothorax risk on deep perpendicular insertion.

Functions

  • Tonifies deficiency of all kinds, nourishing the Lung, Heart, Kidney, Spleen and Stomach
  • Strengthens the original qi
  • Nourishes yin and clears deficiency heat
  • Resolves phlegm
  • Calms the spirit

Indications

Chronic debility and consumptive diseasechronic cough and asthmanight sweats and afternoon feverseminal emissionpoor memory and insomniaupper back and shoulder pain

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.)

📝 Notes

Public notes from the community and your own private notes on BL43 Gaohuang.

No notes yet.

Log in or register to add your own notes.

Back to Points