Internal Medicine
Online ISSN : 1349-7235
Print ISSN : 0918-2918
ISSN-L : 0918-2918
CASE REPORTS
Guillain-Barré Syndrome Following Bee Venom Acupuncture
Hyun Jo LeeIn Seok ParkJon-In LeeJoong-Seok Kim
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JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

2015 Volume 54 Issue 8 Pages 975-978

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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.

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© 2015 by The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine
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