When a 65-year-old woman in South Korea sought medical help for persistent knee pain, physicians expected a routine case. What they uncovered instead was something far more unusual — a discovery that looked less like medicine and more like buried treasure.
A painful daily reality
Life with osteoarthritis is often a slow grind of discomfort. As the protective cartilage in the joints gradually erodes, stiffness sets in, swelling becomes frequent, and pain turns into a constant companion. Ordinary movements — climbing stairs, bending down, or even walking a short distance — can feel draining and overwhelming.
This woman had been battling osteoarthritis for years. According to her account, standard painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs offered little comfort and came with unpleasant side effects, including ongoing stomach problems.
Turning to an ancient solution
In search of relief, she turned to acupuncture, a traditional practice that involves placing needles into specific points of the body to ease pain or treat illness. In her case, the needles — believed to be made of gold — were deliberately left inside her knees to provide prolonged stimulation.
However, keeping needles embedded in the body carries serious risks.
“Any foreign material left inside the body can trigger inflammation, abscess formation, or infection,” explained Dr. Ali Guermazi, a radiology professor at Boston University who was not involved in the case.
When the body fights back
Dr. Guermazi also cautioned that retained needles can interfere with medical imaging. “They can block or distort parts of the anatomy on X-rays,” he noted in a previous statement.
The human body is not designed to tolerate foreign objects indefinitely. Such materials can provoke what doctors call a foreign body reaction — a long-term inflammatory response in which the body attempts to isolate and expel the intruder.
“The body wants to defend itself,” Guermazi said. “That defense often begins with inflammation and the formation of fibrous tissue around the object.”
Even more troubling, embedded needles can pose serious dangers during future medical procedures. MRI scans, for example, may become unsafe. “If needles remain in the body, they can shift during an MRI and potentially damage blood vessels,” Guermazi warned.
Popular, but not proven
Scientific evidence supporting acupuncture as an effective medical treatment remains limited. Still, it continues to be widely used for joint pain, particularly in parts of Asia, where implanting tiny strands of sterile gold around arthritic joints is a relatively common practice.
In the United States, acupuncture is also popular. According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 3.1 million adults and 150,000 children received acupuncture treatment in 2007.
For this woman, the gold embedded in her knees serves as a powerful reminder: alternative medicine may promise relief, but sometimes it leaves behind more than expected — including a very real and risky kind of “treasure.”
