Iowa City Acupuncture   •   Acupuncture Services

Every Licensed Acupuncturist is trained in Clean Needle Technique and is examined on this as part of the national board certification given by the NCCAOM. Other practitioners such as chiropractors and medical doctors who provide acupuncture are not required to pass this exam. In this training, acupuncturists are trained to use 'clean technique'. This is not the same as 'sterile technique'. In 'clean technique' we begin with a clean field, clean hands, clean patient skin, and introduce a sterile needle through the skin. Nothing which is not sterile may touch the needle blade after being removed from its package before being used.

At Acupuncture of Iowa, we no longer use alcohol on the skin, as newer medical research has indicated that it increases the risk of infection by destroying bacteria on the skin surface that protect against infection. In the case that a patient has a weak immune system as in people who are undergoing chemotherapy or who have immune suppressing diseases, we may prepare the skin with betadyne solution (iodine) just as they do in surgery.

There is no truly safe method of sterilization. That is why it is our professional standard to use disposable needles. Autoclaving is not acceptable under any circumstances.

Sterilizing a needle after patient use would require the following steps:

1. collect the needles from the patient,
2. sterilize the needles in the autoclave to make them safe to handle for cleaning,
3. manually scrub and clean the needles with a cleaning solution which will remove particles of tissue, inspect each needle microscopically, resharpen needles as needed, remove damaged needles and dispose of them,
4. rinse the needles in de-ionized water,
5. package the needles for autoclaving,
6. autoclave the needles according to proper instructions,
7. test the autoclave regularly and maintain records of testing.

Needles only cost from 1.5 to 8 cents each. The time and trouble required to resterilize makes it simpler just to use new needles. The risk of infecting a patient with an incompletely sterilized needle is unacceptable.

Be sure that your practitioner uses disposable, one-time-use needles and has taken and passed the Clean Needle Technique class.