Broken needle in the cervical spine: a previously unreported complication of Xiaozendao acupuncture therapy.

Xiaozendao (meaning "small-needle-knife," in Chinese) is a form of alternative medical instrument shaped like an acupuncture needle with a flat edge on the needle tip. It is widely used for the treatment of many different disorders in Asian countries, especially in the People's Republic of China. Its use has gained increasing popularity. To our knowledge, there are no reports of practitioners' experiences or adverse events related to "small-needle-knifed" therapy until now. We reported the first case of spinal-cord injury with delayed onset of neurologic symptoms from a broken small-needle-knife insertion into the spinal cord.