[Comparison and analysis of different schools of Chinese auricular acupuncture]

Based on the literature regarding auricular acupuncture in recent 60 years, the theoretical basis, acupuncturemethods and dominant diseases are analyzed and compared, and three major auricular acupuncture schools are proposed. The first school is the sinicized auricular acupuncture school derived from French Nogier auricular acupuncture school, which can be further divided into three branches: Huang's auricular acupuncture school, Guan's auricular acupuncture school and Chen-Xu's auricular acupuncture school. The second school is Xuanyuan auricular acupuncture school inherited and developed from classical Chinese auricular acupuncture. The third school is Yuchi 's auricular acupuncture school which is based on Chinese and western medical theories but different from the embryo inversion theory of Nogier auricular acupuncture school. Furthermore, the similarities and differences of the theoretical sources, the distribution characteristics of auricular points and the clinical application characteristics of different auricular acupuncture schools are analyzed, so as to provide useful reference for the clinical application, basic research and national standards of auricular acupuncture in the future.