In this issue

It all depends how you look at it.

An adverse event makes everyone nervous. The patient suffers, but often accepts the bad luck, though wanting to ensure that other patients don’t also suffer. Practitioners are deeply embarrassed and understandably defensive. The openness and objectivity that the topic demands are often difficult to achieve. And, in minority practices like acupuncture, adverse events can be used as a weapon to express prejudices and beat the acupuncturists round the head. We have tried to adopt a balanced approach to the report by Ogisawara et al of septic arthritis and psoas abscess after acupuncture, by publishing it in exactly the form resubmitted after review, and then by accompanying it by an editorial. We shall never be sure of the truth as to whether this event was or was not a consequence of acupuncture treatment. But it is …