How does acupuncture (fronto-hook acupuncture) treat acne?

  Acne vulgaris is a common clinical condition. It is a chronic skin disease of the sebaceous glands of the hair follicles caused by a combination of factors. It begins to develop in adolescence and occurs on the face, upper chest and back, where the sebaceous glands are well-developed. In addition to blackheads, the inflammatory lesions can be seen as papules, pustules, nodules, cysts, aggregates, and other types of redness and ulcers of various sizes in the hair follicle area, accompanied by seborrhea, and are chronic. It is called “acne” in Chinese medicine, also known as “pulmonary wind acne”.  Non-inflammatory lesions are conical papules that are consistent with the mouth of the hair follicle and can be extruded with a translucent sebaceous tether with a yellowish-white or black tip, consisting of sebum in the hair follicle and keratinized cells shed from the hair follicle wall, which is an early manifestation of the characteristic lesions of acne and is often called blackhead acne. If the inflammation penetrates deeper into the skin layer, it is called nodular or cystic. The nodular type is a light red or dark red nodule of different sizes, which may be higher than the skin surface; the cystic type is not higher than the skin and forms an ulcerated cavity in the skin layer, which is dark red or normal. The above purulent follicular lesions are aggregated if they occur in one place. The inflammation can persist for a longer period of time, from superficial to deep, from small to large, with the type worsening, and eventually septic ulcers form scars and pigmentation, which become lifelong lesions and affect the aesthetics of facial skin.  The diagnostic criteria for the severity and efficacy of acne vulgaris are based on the number of acne and the type of lesion with reference to each other. The efficacy of various therapies takes the disappearance of lesions as the ultimate goal, so treating the developed lesions and promoting lesion healing is the main idea of clinical treatment.  In the treatment of acne vulgaris, a small incision is made in the lateral wall of the follicle by picking and cutting with a sharp hooked needle, which enlarges the follicle opening. edema, blocking the spread of inflammation, and the various blood cells brought by local fresh blood, producing various types of growth factors and chemokines, smoothly transitioning to the tissue repair phase and promoting ulcer healing.  According to the philosophy of Chinese medicine, “If you want to get rid of the pus, get rid of it”, localized redness and pus formation in acne lesions are caused by heat, dampness, phlegm and stagnation of blood, which are “heat and real evidence”. Draining pus and bleeding from acne lesions is to expel bad blood, promote local qi and blood, drain heat, subdue swelling, dredge meridians and channels, dispel blood stasis and generate new blood.