Segment-Anatomie: Der Schlüssel zu Akupunktur, Neuraltherapie und Manualtherapie

This is a book of fundamental importance for the acupuncture profession. Most medical acupuncturists will be aware of the concepts of “segmental acupuncture” outlined by Bekkering and van Bussel.1 However, physiotherapists who practise acupuncture may be more familiar with trigger point therapy, and the majority of traditional acupuncturists will have little knowledge of either approach. All will benefit from reading this textbook which, as the subtitle claims, may well be a key to understanding many aspects of acupuncture, neural therapy (a method of treatment using local anaesthetic injections) and indeed manual therapy, in terms of Western anatomy. It will also be useful to other health professionals as an aid to diagnosis.

Dr Wancura is a highly experienced acupuncture practitioner, the co-author of several works on acupuncture since 1974, and involved in the study of the “forgotten knowledge” of segmental anatomy since 1965. The present book is the summation of her own knowledge on the subject, a comprehensive if not all-inclusive review of the extensive literature published in German (around 240 references), in comparison to which that available in English looks very minimal indeed! In fact, only 10 English language publications are listed here, although much of the author’s base material derives from works by Henry Head and James Mackenzie translated into German. (In all, nearly 7% of the references are translations from English. The proportion of papers translated from German in a comparable English textbook would be far less.)

The book is richly illustrated (116 illustrations, many in two or more parts) and divided into 10 chapters: (1) an introduction to the segments and metamerism; (2 and 3) on the role of the peripheral spinal and autonomic nervous systems in the segments; (4–7) on the dermatomes, myotomes, sclerotomes and enterotomes (viscerotomes); (8) on the connections within and between the …