Microacupuncture Report

What is it and Should these treatments be investigated?

Microacupuncture was originally developed in Denmark and slowly migrated to the United States in 1992 in which it was introduced here in Dallas, Texas in 1994 by Dr. Per Otte.

It's been noted that he treated 10,000 patients in the US who are raving about these treatments.?There are, however, dangers, risks and side effects to these treatments of Microacupuncture as I will explain.

These treatments consist of 48 acupuncture points unaffiliated with any other acupuncture treatments in existence today.?These treatments cultivate itself.?

There are only 2 main types of treatments in microacupuncture used with many illnesses for eyes and pain and diseases. One diagnosis is Raynauds Syndrome treatments which was originally approved when Dr. Otte received his Dr. of science degree.

Statistically they claim that there is a 95% success rate with these treatments with over 10,000 patients who have been treated in the US since 1992.?With that in mind, they are most likely factoring in failure rates with complications since the treatments produce varying results.?

The development of this procedure moved on from Texas in 1995 to Arkansas in 1996 to 2005, then Florida in 2005 to 2007, South Carolina in 2007 to 2008 undocumented, and then West Virginia in 2011, but not until it was introduced in Minnesota, New Jersey, California, and Oregon singlehandedly with just a handful of people in the early 2000's. They practice these treatments today after 30 years of introduction and research.

Very few have touched on this since it's origination in Denmark in 1984 where it was developed and gained phenomenal results and notoriety over the last 3 1/2 decades in Denmark and the United States of America.

At the moment there are no controls on this service except with approval by Acupuncture and Medical Boards.?The facts I am presenting have been kept private unknowingly to the medical community and boards who have certified them since 1993.?

There have been physician and acupuncturist complaints we are only aware of since 1994 in Texas, and 2005 in Arkansas. Their scope of practice and field of study is very limited as there have not been any pilot studies done ever on this project in the US.

We haven't heard much about this for a while, but it will soon be heard.?These treatments evolved early in the first decade of the mid 80' in Denmark to the mid 90's in the USA and has been augmenting for quite some time, operating in huge numbers.?So why haven't we heard about this??There's no surgery. It's all natural and it's expensive!?We're all game to being offered the treatments as there are approximately 20 million?people in the United States who have AMD, and nearly 1.5 million Americans who have the advanced form of the disease which is not curable until now.?It’s the leading cause of blindness in America and around the world.

The exciting news is?patients treated with this procedure begin being able to read a near reading card in a matter of 20 minutes of treatment even when their vision is 200/400 or more, which is considered legally blind.?As magnificent as this phenomena appears, it has been discovered to increase blood flow in the eyes which is why the eyes get worse before getting better when treating Wet Macular Degeneration for example.?The bleeding increases in the eyes right after treatment. They later determined the bleeding decreases in a short period of time and the vision miraculously appears to improve on a near reading card exam and visual field scanning right after treatment.?It is believed the treatments are cleaning out the blood vessels and the capillaries of cholesterol buildup which in their opinion, is the reason for vision loss in the first place.?This differs from scientific discoveries that the vision is lost due to dying cells.?

Furthermore, it is believed that when blood pressures are routinely monitored by the patient, it lowers cholesterol and blood pressure, as a side effect, that could theoretically determine that these Microacupuncturist’s evaluation are on to something and is possibly correct in what is going on in the eyes for immediate vision improvement.?This is not just determined on a near reading card. It is also determined with a visual field scanner before and after treatment to detect improvement.?This is why they call it Microacupuncture.?This service provider is forced to tell the patient it has to get worse before it gets better without Medical Doctor evaluations.?This has never been measured in the medical field before to our knowledge.

In addition, in Dry Macular degeneration and other eye ailments and their improvements have been determined by using a near reading card and visual field scanner typically used in a Optometrist’s offices for testing the patients vision before and after treatment in order to continue with the treatments.?As I explained, they are very expensive for the patient. ?To my knowledge insurance does not pay for the eye treatments.

At this time there is no introduction to the number of treatments required in their procedures to the public to factor in cost factors before receiving the treatments.?This may very well be factored in the initial consultation.?This cuts down on the number of phone calls to the clinic which would be impossible to handle, based on the size of the clinic.

Some of the eye diseases they traditionally treat with these treatments are Macular Degeneration, Wet Macular Degeneration, Stargardt’s Disease, Glaucoma, Cataracts, Astigmatism, and Retinitis Pigmentosa which is one of the leading causes of total blindness.?This acupuncturist has been claiming this on his websites for over 3 decades. ?He claims Astigmatism does not always work and is one of the hardest eye diseases to treat.?Retinitis Pigmentosa has shown slow improvement with Microacupuncture, but takes longer to achieve and is more costly since it leads to total blindness and there are no other treatments for this disease by Opthalmologists to my knowledge today.?Patients just have to live with it according to Dr. Otte.

To my knowledge, the same treatments for Macular Degeneration are used for all eye diseases.?That needs to be questioned as it may be different today.?Most of my discoveries were made in 1992 - 1996 in this field at the introduction to Microacupuncture in the United States.

Glaucoma has a different approach.?The claim that improvement occurs with these treatments are not presented anywhere in the publicity and their literature before the initial consultation.?But for the record, I was there in 1994 when the 1st glaucoma patient in the US was treated.?He was a 13 year old boy who suffered from glaucoma for years.?The doctors had a very hard time controlling the pressures in his eyes.?They had finally found drops that seemed to be working when Otte started treating him.?Immediately the boys pressures increased to 30 requiring surgery to relieve the pressures. Otte was ordered to stop treatment.?Otte grew angry saying it has to get worse before it gets better.?This is unheard of as the disease was seriously out of control.?And since this was his very first patient treated for glaucoma in the US, it raises questions about other glaucoma patients who have received treatments over the years. This needs to be questioned.

There is very little information for these treatments on Cataracts.?Yet Dr. Otte’s claim that they disappear after treatments which need to be addressed.?Since there is no information out there that will help determine in a clinical trial what to expect, his past advertising suggests that he provides this service in his forums.

Dr. Otte claims he treats patients 3 times a day presumably for 20 minutes per treatment customarily with his program.?In a year they come back for a tune-up.?But there is no additional information out there that gives us the break down of what this entails.?That leads to an unknown fact that is misleading in his advertising and the patient does not get to know or ask this question for cost factors unless he clearly states it in his first consultation with the patient.?This needs to be addressed also.

There are 5 acupuncturists in the US practicing these treatments who were trained by Dr. Otte.?One error that surfaced is the need for additional treatments in the US the following year.?A Dr. Rosenfarb, who Otte trained, claims the patients come back for treatment every six months where Dr. Otte says once a year.

Because too much time has passed, it can’t be determined at this time that all the same exact procedure and needles are used for all eye diseases no matter the eye disease.?There’s no pilot or field of study that tell us this today. There is no literature on this and it’s too complex to tell without questioning during the consultation or procedure taking place.?The patient would not normally know to ask this question in a consultation.?So my advice is to ask questions.

There are other sorts of medical illnesses and pain that can be treated and improved with these treatments in the hands and feet unassociated with any other acupuncture combined with ?using other sorts of acupuncture treatments typically used by traditional acupuncturists to improve the number of ailments in a very short period of time.?I’m not sure if he even treats pain patients today or what procedure he uses. His advertising is entirely for vision.

What I can say is in 1992 through 1994 he had phenomenal results with pain patients in which the Texas Medical Board allows for his licensing due to the numbers of patients who wrote their stories to the Board when his license was in question.?Texas incidentally does not allow eye treatments as there are no patient records to them concerning this matter.?He left this off the record after 1994 in Dallas when he left the Sports Medicine Rehabilitation Clinic and Surgery Center he had worked at since his arrival in Texas in August 1992, and moved to Arkansas to open up his practice in March 1995. People were left hanging in Texas because of doctor complaints to the medical board for his vision treatments.

There is no information out there to explain how he treats pain patients and with what treatment. It’s possible he uses both procedures for pain and ailments that were explained to me.

As I said, his successes were phenomenal.?I didn’t witness the treatments visually so I don ’t know the elements, but I do know the amazing results as I did speak to his patients.?This needs to be questioned due to the fact these patients were left hanging.?My question is what happened to these patients after he left, and why have we not heard more about this?

There were no pilot studies ever.?Without this knowledge made known to doctors or patients alike since 1994, how can there be a wanted investigation in this matter?

Just for the record, I have seen patients and heard stories of patients who have recovered from open wounds that occurred in accidents under Workman Compensation claims.?These patients had to lose their Workmans Compensation due to this short term improvement after years of no recovery and having tubes put in their wounds for infection and drainage that were not able to continue with these treatments due to insurance claim denials from patients who were recovering from these acupuncture and Microacupuncture treatments.

As I explained, Otte claims there are no risks or side effects to these treatments other than lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. His patients are made aware of this in their first consultation. The fact is there are risks and side effect posed in these treatments never talked about until now.?The elements cultivate itself as I stated earlier. Since there are no clinical trials or pilot programs to prove this, I will produce these current results known here.

He used trigger point injections with syringes under controlled environments only to my knowledge under medical supervision in 1994.?These points are used in Western Medicine and should be evaluated in his current day practice.?Any prescriptions given with these treatments should also be evaluated.?I don't know if he uses medicines with trigger point injections other than the service he provided at the surgery center he worked at in 1994.

?There are no clinical trials for Microacupuncture supplements to my knowledge.?Dr. Otte was not educated for this distribution except by later direction that may have been received following my exit of this evaluation in 1996. He never used supplements till later as well. I have little information to what this entails except that he was not trained in any education assembly prior to our initial introduction in 1992 before his arrival to the US and our exit in 1996. All I know is he didn’t go to school for this.

I don't know the elements or the treatments for either analogy of astigmatism, or trigger point injections.?All advice made known to me was these are the hardest procedures to follow for any possibility of improvement.?This needs to be questioned with supervision of a physician.?Furthermore, there are no other reports on farsightedness or nearsightedness being treated with this procedure.

It is stated in their website www.4eyehealth.com that “In 2006 he developed a system that includes a homeopathic solution at the point of insertion of the needles. This gives the effect of small injections of homeopathic medication and the success rate is now over 95%.”

It is dangerous to dip sterile needles in a homeopathic water solution that is not sterile into the skin which could cause infections. The medical boards are not aware of this, and neither are his patients who allow this to happen.?This needs to be addressed.?The only suggestion that was made is that Otte take a clean needle technique course by the Texas Medical Board, which to my knowledge has not occurred.?This too needs to be questioned.?Otte may claim it creates balance based on his interpretation of energy lanes and not nerves.

Apparently,?there are no needles near the eyes, but there is one used in the middle of the forehead above the nose between the eyes that needs to be questioned.?Otte may claim it makes the treatments work better.?His training to other Microacupuncturists should be questioned for safety reasons since it is near the eyes and not just to make the treatments work better.

It has been noted that his patients who get the eye treatments drive without a license right after treatment or in between the first and second treatment especially where the elderly are concerned.?There are no controls set on this or on the number of people he treats, and this also includes patients with airplane pilot licenses.

Also, there are problems if the patients do not come back for tune-up or completion of treatments in 6 months or a year whichever the case may be.?Truck drivers with deadlines or fatigue, pilots with deadlines or fatigue, children who don’t know how to relay their vision is getting worse after treatments or any number of situations should be questioned and addressed.?Part of the rhetoric should include the patient is liable for their own part until this can be addressed properly.?Possibly a waiver should be implemented to avoid legal remedies.

In my opinion, without these scenarios or questions being delivered, and with the numbers of patients listed in his portals, the question should come up. Should Medical Boards be held liable or accountable for approving this service or treatments?

I welcome Dr. Otte’s rebuttal on anything I have presented here.

With Sincerest Regrets,

Christine Iannone

#Microacupuncture #VisionOurMission