Am J Chin Med. 2001 ; 29(1): 37-45.

Moxibustion treatment of breech presentation.

Kanakura Y, Kometani K, Nagata T, Niwa K, Kamatsuki H, Shinzato Y, Tokunaga Y.

Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Second Teaching School of Medicine, Fujita Health University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.

Breech presentation was successfully corrected by stimulating acupuncture points with moxibustion or low-frequency electrical current. Only patients with breech pregnancies at the 28th week or later were entered into the study. With moxibustion treatment, the control group had a spontaneous correction rate of 165/224 (73.66%), and the treatment group had a correction rate of 123/133 (92.48%) (P<0.0001, x2 test). With low-frequency percutaneous electrical stimulation, the correction rate was 20/941 (83.87%) in the control group and 171/191 (89.52%) in the treatment group (P=0.094, x2 test). The controls in the moxibustion study did no exercises and received no external manipulation to correct breech presentation whereas those in the electrical stimulation study experienced both. Acupuncture stimulation, especially with moxibustion, is expected to serve as a safe and effective modality in the management of breech presentation in a clinical setting.