Citation

Lee HJ, Park IS, Lee JI, Kim JS. Intern. Med. 2015; 54(8): 975-978.

Affiliation

Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Korea.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Japanese Society of Internal Medicine)

DOI

10.2169/internalmedicine.54.2238

PMID

25876584

Abstract

Bee venom acupuncture has been widely used in Oriental medicine with limited evidence of effectiveness. Most of the complications due to bee venom acupuncture are local or systemic allergic reactions. However, serious medical and neurological complications have also been reported. We herein describe the treatment of a 68-year-old woman who developed progressive quadriplegia 10 days after receiving multiple honeybee venom sting acupuncture treatments. The electrophysiological findings were consistent with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). The temporal relationship between the development of GBS and honeybee venom sting acupuncture is suggestive of a cause-and-effect relationship, although the precise pathophysiology and causative components in honeybee venom need to be verified.

Language: en