New Universal Nomenclature in Auriculotherapy.

OBJECTIVES: To propose at the auriculotherapists a New Universal Nomenclature of Auriculotherapy, able to receive any mapping whatsoever.

DESIGN: We built this proposition by using electronic database search to find the different formulations of Auricular Acupuncture Points (AAPs), by studying neuroradiology methods describing reliable and reproducible marks able to adapt to all brain morphologies, by studying the analysis of brain dissections, showed us the internal organization of the brain; and after having proved the neurophysiological correlations between auricular displays and their brain correspondences.

RESULTS: Since the 1950s, the study of Auriculotherapy by Paul Nogier and his students regularly progressed. The World Health Organization recognized it in 1987 and developed the First International Nomenclature in 1990. The number of therapeutic zones of the ear, in proportion to the constant progress in neurophysiology, never stops growing. This growth presents a major problem: all the first classifications became inappropriate and unfit. We propose a Universal Nomenclature of Auriculotherapy which is a biomathematical model of the brain anatomic organization, with 189 areas on the lateral ear and 89 areas on the medial ear.

CONCLUSION: The Universal Auriculotherapy Nomenclature we proposed to the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies and which approved it at its International Convention in September 2011 in London, gives accurate Cartesian Marks and is able to receive any mapping whatsoever. Dispatching around 57 countries (Europe, America, China, Russia and Africa) and 195 Acupuncture Societies, it will facilitate the work of auriculotherapists and allow a scientific progress of the subject worldwide. This progress will allow the largest number of people to have a common tool for education, research, and publications of the discipline.