Patient, 74, who went to the doctor fearing he had an aneurysm, turns out to have an acupuncture needle in his brain that has been there for 20 years

A patient who thought he was suffering from an aneurysm was found to have an acupuncture needle embedded in his brain.

Scans revealed the half-centimetre-long ‘gold-coloured’ and ‘slightly pointed’ needle lodged in an artery in the 74-year-old man’s brain.

It caused internal bleeding that caused him to have memory problems, prompting him to be rushed to hospital.

His family said the needle had probably been in there for 20 years, as they only remembered him undergoing acupuncture for a persistent migraine in the early 2000s.

The needle was removed via surgery to cut open the skull. The man, from Sichuan, China, survived but died three weeks later from a lung infection.

Above is the part of the acupuncture needle that was removed during the operation. The family said it had been in his brain for 20 years

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medical practice that involves inserting hundreds of tiny needles into specific points in the body to stimulate energy known as qi – pronounced ‘chee’.

Acupuncturists say the method can help relieve pain, reduce stress and even promote joint recovery by stimulating nerves and blood flow in the areas receiving the treatment.

But scientific evidence about the method is inconclusive; only a few studies suggest that acupuncture benefits patients.

The small needle in the man was found in an artery that runs through the brain behind the right eye – called the right middle cerebral artery.

It was suggested that the needle may have broken off during an acupuncture treatment and then been carried to the artery behind the eye.

It is not clear what led to the fracture, but it could be due to a fall, a sharp blow to the head or because the position of the needle in the skull shifts.

The man was rushed to doctors an hour after his memory problems emerged, with family initially fearing he was suffering from an aneurysm.

But scans revealed both the needle in his brain and a bleed.

To remove the needle, doctors first had to cut out part of his skull – in a procedure called craniotomy – to gain access to his brain.

They then cut through the dura mater, the thick outer layer of the brain, and used a surgical microscope to navigate through the brain to the needle, avoiding vital arteries and structures.

The needle was then removed and the ruptured vessel was closed using a very small metal clip to close the ruptured part of the vessel.

After the operation, the man initially recovered well – and was taken off his ventilator ten days later.

But while in hospital he developed a lung infection and died three weeks after the operation.

Doctors said the infection may have been related to him becoming unconscious before the operation, which disables the body’s natural defenses against infections of the lungs such as coughing or gagging.

Doctors diagnosed the man with an intracranial pseudoaneurysm, in which blood leaks from a vessel in the brain but is held in place by surrounding tissue.

They differ from a true aneurysm, in which a vessel wall weakens and bulges as blood pools within it.

Pseudoaneurysms are extremely rare and account for less than five percent of all arterial punctures.

Doctors said this case was the first in the medical literature of a man with a pseudoaneurysm caused by an acupuncture needle.

Previous cases have been caused by infections that damage the arteries in the brain and by head trauma – or sharp impacts to the head.

The matter came to light in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.

In the paper led by Dr. Qiang Li, a neurosurgeon at the Southwest Medical University Hospital in China, the authors wrote: ‘Intracranial pseudoaneurysms caused by foreign bodies represent a challenging and rare… entity, which requires rapid makes diagnosis and intervention necessary.

‘The rarity of such events underlines the critical importance of maintaining a high index of suspicion, especially in cases involving recent medical trauma or brain injury.’