A Chinese man who complained of chest and back pains shocked doctors when they found a 40-year-old acupuncture needle that had been lodged in his stomach, Yahoo News reported on Thursday.
Xu Long, from the city of Jiujiang in south-eastern China's Jiangxi Province, had been treated with acupuncture while serving in the military in 1974 to cure stomach upset.
When he sought help for his problem, the army doctor who treated him told him to try the alternative therapy, in which specific acupuncture points along the skin of the body are penetrated by tiny needles.
Now at age 60, he was x-rayed by physicians when he experienced severe chest pain, only for doctors to make the extremely rare find.
"The only time I ever had acupuncture was while in the army," Long said. "I recall I had an on-going stomach ache at the time which hurt for two days and two nights."
He added: 'The army doctor offered to perform acupuncture on me and it worked. The pain stopped immediately.'
But Long now thinks one of the needles had broken in half during the procedure, The Daily Mail reported.
"At first, I didn't feel anything, my stomach pain had gone and all was good, but over the years I began to feel increasing discomfort in my back and in my chest," he said.
Doctor Ye Lin, who carried out the surgery to remove the 3cm-long needle said it surprised his practice.
'The needle which was stuck in his intestines had turned black and was very thick because of decades of oxidation.'The doctors added that the needle had probably shifted through the man's body as he went about his life, pushing it slowly to different locations before finally being identified 40 years later.
