Množina: acupunctures

ETYM Latin acus needle + punctura a pricking, from pungere to prick: cf. French acuponcture.
(Chinese) Treatment of pain or disease by inserting the tips of needles at specific points on the skin; SYN. stylostixis.
In alternative medicine, system of inserting long, thin metal needles into the body at predetermined points to relieve pain, as an anesthetic in surgery, and to assist healing. The needles are rotated manually or electrically. The method, developed in ancient China and increasingly popular in the West, is thought to work by somehow stimulating the brain's own painkillers, the endorphins.
Acupuncture is based on a theory of physiology that posits a network of life-energy pathways or “meridians” in the human body and some 800 “acupuncture points” where metal needles may be inserted to affect the energy flow for purposes of preventive or remedial therapy or to produce a local anesthetic effect. Numerous studies and surveys have attested the efficacy of the method, which is widely conceded by orthodox practitioners despite the lack of an acceptable scientific explanation.