Investigation of the Adverse Events Associated with Bee Venom Pharmacopuncture in Patients Hospitalized in a Korean Hospital: A Retrospective Chart Review Study

Abstract

In bee venom pharmacopuncture (BVP), bee venom isolated from the venom sac of bees is injected into the acupoint or muscle associated with a disease. However, the histamine component in bee venom can cause adverse events; therefore, attention is required for BVP use. This study investigated the frequency, severity and characteristics of patients developing BVP-associated adverse events. The medical records of patients treated with BVP at Kyung Hee University Korean Medicine Hospital between 1 January 2013 and 1 May 2021 were reviewed. The demographic characteristics, disease-related characteristics, treatment-related characteristics and impressions of each patient were analyzed. In this study, >50% of 4821 inpatients were hospitalized for neurological disorders. The mean age of the overall study population was 54.62 ± 16.38 years and 61% were women. The frequency of adverse events was 2.32%. The mean age in the adverse events group was 58.20 ± 16.10 years and 76% were women. Two patients experienced moderate adverse events, with no commonality between these events. Every patient recovered naturally with no sequelae. The results showed that BVP is a relatively safe therapeutic method. However, further studies are needed to determine the frequency of adverse events and identify the causality between baseline characteristics and adverse events.

Pharmacopuncture Therapy as an Adjunctive Treatment for Patients with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: A Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

“…Retrospective chart analysis revealed that the incidence of bee venom-related systemic immune responses is 0.02–0.234% in clinical practice. 35 , 36 A systematic literature review indicated that bee venom pharmacopuncture increased the relative risk of AEs by 2.6 times compared to normal saline injection. 37 Furthermore, this study reaffirmed the potential risk of a systemic hypersensitive immune response despite using sweet bee venom and its application.…”