A 65 year old woman went to the doctor because of severe knee pain. An x-ray showed that she has hundreds of fibers, made of gold, in her skin all around the knee. It’s little bits of actual gold, just like short sewing thread, all over.
Turns out that she had acupuncture years before. The acupuncturist left the little golden threads in the joint on purpose saying it was part of the treatment. Because of that “treatment” the shinbone and inner part of the joint thickened and hardened. Bony spurs grew in the inner shin and thigh bones near the knee. This all caused reduced movement and lots of extra pain.
It didn’t say if doctors were able to remove all the gold threads, but I saw the x-ray. I don’t see how they could. They’re everywhere. You’d make hamburger out of the muscle and skin just trying to get to them all.
This was in South Korea where it’s common. Problem is that these threads can migrate through the body. Another woman had it done on her back. They found threads in her lower leg 10 years later when it caused severe infection.