A Mechanical Construction to Enhance the Stability and Safety of Lifting and Thrusting Manipulation of Acupuncture

For a long time, we perform acupuncture with experience and feeling. So, I want to design an auxiliary instrument that can standardize the manipulation so that even beginners can use to perform acupuncture manipulation without accidents. 3D modeling is used for the structure design and the wide resin is used as the material for 3D printing, which offers the advantages of lower cost and easier structure adjustments.

Additionally, Simi Motion 3D are three-dimensional motion tracking software was employed to capture the movement of acupuncture manipulation in assessment. We have proved that our design can significantly enhance the stability of acupuncture manipulation. Its adoption could contribute to the standardization of acupuncture practice, ensuring more consistent and accurate research outcomes, which is essential for future advancements in acupuncture research and clinical applications.

We were improve the cannula or design new needle cannulas that could be used in other acupuncture manipulations, such as the twisting manipulation. The cannula's utility could be significantly enhanced if its structure were adapted to support a wider range of acupuncture techniques. To perform lifting and thrusting manipulations without cannula, insert the needle to a depth of 20 millimeters and lift it up and down uniformly with an amplitude of 15 millimeters at a frequency of 60 times per minute.

For heavy thrusting with light lifting, insert the needle to a depth of 20 millimeters. Quickly insert the needle to a set depth, then slowly withdraw to the superficial layer with a 15-millimeter amplitude at 60 times per minute. To perform light thrusting with heavy lifting, insert the needle to a depth of 20 millimeters.

Slowly insert the needle to the required depth, and then withdraw it to a shallow layer with a 15 millimeter amplitude at 60 times per minute. To perform even lifting and thrusting, fix the needle inside a needle sleeve and place the sleeve into a cannula. Insert the needle to a depth of 20 millimeters and manipulate the cannula up and down evenly with a 15-millimeter amplitude at a frequency of 60 times per minute.

For heavy thrusting with light lifting, use the same cannula and insert the needle to a depth of 20 millimeters. Quickly insert the needle to a limited depth, Then slowly withdraw it to the superficial layer at a frequency of 60 times per minute. To perform light thrusting with heavy lifting using the same cannula, insert the needle to a depth of 20 millimeters.

Slowly insert the needle to the required depth, followed by heavy lifting where the needle is rapidly withdrawn to the superficial layer at a frequency of 60 times per minute. After performing the lifting and thrusting manipulation in acupuncture, save the operation videos to the computer-designated storage disk and name each file using the participant's full initials. Next, start the motion capture and analysis software and select new project.

In the project tab, enter the project name, click Create and then save to store the project on the specified storage disk. Select Specification, Points, and thumb tip from the menu. Drag the tracking point from the predefined point box to the used point box, then click Close to proceed.

Then right click on Cameras and select Add camera group to create a new camera group. In the tracking box, click the Select File button to select the tracking file. Click on Open existing file and select the operation video from the popup window.

Then click on apply to complete the video import. In the 3D calibration box, click on Select File to import the calibration video. Now, open the Camera group, then right click on 1.

mp4 and Properties to access the file properties. Then click on the 3D calibration button in the 3D calibration box. Enter a description and click the add points button 20 times to add 20 points.

Set the name and corresponding X, Y, and Z values for each point. Click on Apply to finalize the calibration parameters. After configuring all points, click on each endpoint of the calibration video to complete the 3D calibration.

Then right-click on camera group, followed by 3D tracking. Select all cameras and click OK to open the 3D tracking window. Set use pattern matching tracking for both cameras.

Manually click on the thumb tip point in the first frame. Click the auto search button to begin automatic 3D tracking frame by frame. Using a cannula significantly reduced the range of motion for all three manipulation methods along the x-axis compared to without the cannula.

No significant differences were observed in the range of motion along the y-axis with or without the cannula across all manipulation methods. When the cannula was used for all manipulation methods, the z-axis range of motion was significantly closer to the target amplitude of 15 millimeters, improving vertical control. Increasing the amplitude to 15 millimeters improved the stability of even lifting and thrusting with statistically significant differences observed.

Stability along the y-axis did not significantly change with different amplitudes or manipulation methods. Manipulations at amplitudes of 10 millimeters and 15 millimeters along the z-axis had significantly lower error rates than at 5 millimeters, indicating improved depth control.