The aim of the study was to evaluate cardiovascular effects and fetal behavior during
moxibustion, acupuncture or acupuncture plus
moxibustion applied on the BL.67
acupoint of women (beside the outer corner of the 5th toenail) in fetal
breech presentation. During the
acupoint stimulation (20 min, two times a week), the women were submitted to computerized non-stress test. Fourteen cases were treated by both acupuncture and
moxibustion, 15 cases by
moxibustion and 10 cases by acupuncture. In 56% of cases, fetal position was converted from breech position to cephalic one; the success share was 80% for
moxibustion, 28% for acupuncture, 57% for acupuncture plus
moxibustion; the conversion, on average, was achieved after 3 sessions. Statistical analysis indicated that acupuncture plus
moxibustion was able to reduce fetal heart rate during the application of stimuli while acupuncture and
moxibustion separately did not affect such parameter. Moreover,
moxibustion and acupuncture with
moxibustion reduced fetal movements while acupuncture only appears ineffective. The present study suggests that fetal movements were reduced by both acupuncture plus
moxibustion and
moxibustion and that fetal heart rate was reduced just by acupuncture plus
moxibustion. The mechanisms leading the effect on fetal heart rate and fetal movements remain to be clarified. Even though further studies are needed, such preliminar report mainly investigated the impact of different stimula on the BL.67
acupoint. Unfortunately these small series of data do not allow us to draw any conclusion about the effectiveness of the different treatments.