DU-22 (Xin Hui) Fontanel Meeting

What does DU-22 Xin Hui do?

DU-22 benefits the nose, and eliminates wind and benefits the head — a forehead-scalp point whose name, “Fontanelle Meeting”, carries its most important caution.

• Benefits the nose — the nasal action, behind its use for runny and blocked nose
• Eliminates wind and benefits the head — the wind-and-head action for headache and blurred vision

The name marks the anterior fontanelle — and a real contraindication. “Xin Hui” means Fontanelle Meeting, and the point sits over the anterior fontanelle — the diamond-shaped soft spot at the front-top of an infant’s skull, where the skull bones have not yet fused and only membrane (not bone) covers the brain. The fontanelle closes in the first couple of years of life. In an infant, then, there is no bone beneath this point, and our record accordingly states it is prohibited in infants (and in the rare adult with a persistent unfused metopic suture). This is one of the clearest cases in the library of a point-name that is its own safety warning.

A forehead point of the Governing vessel. DU-22 sits well forward of the vertex, 3 cun in front of DU-20 Bai Hui and 2 cun behind the front hairline — over the forehead region, which is why its actions reach the nose below as well as the head.

On the name. “Xin Hui” — Fontanelle Meeting, the meeting of the skull bones at the fontanelle, as noted above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (channel, action, location and translation records; the DU-20 record and the recorded infant prohibition queried against our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

What is DU-22 Xin Hui used for?

DU-22 is used for headache, blurred vision, runny nose, and infantile convulsion. Our own indication record is reproduced here in full.

• Headache
• Blurring of vision
• Rhinorrhoea (runny nose)
• Infantile convulsion

Head, eyes, nose — and an entry that meets its own contraindication. Headache and blurred vision are the wind-and-head action; runny nose is the nose action; and infantile convulsion is the classical indication that sits in obvious tension with the point’s own infant prohibition (below). The classical texts list the indication; safe modern practice does not needle this point on an infant — the two are reconciled by using moxa or other points instead, never by needling the open fontanelle.

An honest and necessary note. Infantile convulsions (febrile seizures and others) are a medical emergency requiring urgent assessment — a convulsing child needs medical care, not acupuncture, and this point must not be needled in an infant (the fontanelle is open; see the needling tab). New, severe or changed headache, and blurred vision, require assessment in anyone. This record documents classical use only, and flags the infant contraindication as strongly as the library can.

How it is combined. In adults, with DU-20 Bai Hui and DU-23 Shang Xing for the head and nose, and LI-20 Ying Xiang for the nose. All held here.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (indication and action records; the DU-20, DU-23 and LI-20 records queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources.

Where is DU-22 Xin Hui located?

DU-22 is on the midline of the front of the head, two cun behind the front hairline, three cun in front of the crown point DU-20.

• On the midline of the head, on the Governing vessel
• 2 cun behind the anterior (front) hairline
• 3 cun in front of DU-20 Bai Hui — and, anatomically, over the site of the anterior fontanelle

The fontanelle site is the landmark — and the reason for care. In an infant, the anterior fontanelle can be seen and felt as a soft, sometimes pulsating diamond at this spot; in an adult it has closed to bone, felt as a slight point on the midline 2 cun behind the hairline. Either way, DU-22 marks it. That anatomy is exactly why the point is located precisely and, in infants, not needled at all.

On the name. “Xin Hui” — Fontanelle Meeting, as noted above.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (location and translation records, retained unchanged; the DU-20 record queried from our own data).

• A Manual of Acupuncture (p. 555): At the top of the head on the midline, 2 cun posterior to the anterior hairline.
• Chinese Acupuncture and Moxibustion (p. 234): 2 cun posterior to the midpoint of the anterior hairline, 3 cun anterior to Baihui (DU-20).

How is DU-22 Xin Hui needled, and why the infant prohibition?

Our own record states subcutaneous insertion of 0.3–0.5 inch — and it explicitly prohibits the point in infants. What follows is a neutral record of what the reference literature documents. It is not instruction, and this page does not teach technique.

• Angle and depth as recorded: subcutaneous, 0.3–0.5 inch, threaded flat under the scalp along the skull — in an adult, whose skull has fused.
• The infant prohibition (recorded verbatim): our record states the point is “prohibited in infants with metopism (as is the metopic suture of the frontal skull bone)”. The reason is anatomical and absolute: in an infant the anterior fontanelle is open — membrane, not bone, covers the brain here — so a needle has no skull to stop against. The point is not needled in infants, full stop.
• Moxibustion: not listed in our record for this point.
• Regional anatomy: the point overlies the site of the anterior fontanelle on the midline; the superior sagittal sinus runs in the midline within the skull; in the adult, fused bone protects it, and the subcutaneous depth stays well clear.

Hazard, stated plainly. In an adult with a fused skull this is a low-hazard point — bone beneath, subcutaneous needling. In an infant it is contraindicated, because the unfused fontanelle leaves the brain unprotected by bone. Our record carries no arterial caution at DU-22, and it is not among the nine points that do; the governing consideration here is the fontanelle, not a vessel.

What is not claimed. No study measuring a safe depth at DU-22 could be located, and none is needed at a subcutaneous depth over an adult’s fused skull. No case report naming DU-22 was located.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (needling record, retained unchanged including the infant prohibition; the nine arterial cautions queried from our own data), cross-referenced against multiple online sources; regional anatomy from standard anatomical description.

Is there research on DU-22, and what should a reader know?

No trial isolates DU-22. Where the point appears it is one component of a headache or nasal protocol, and a study that includes a point in a protocol is not evidence about that point.

What this page can state with confidence. DU-22 Xin Hui (“Fontanelle Meeting”) is a Governing-vessel forehead-scalp point over the site of the anterior fontanelle, 3 cun in front of DU-20. It benefits the nose and the head. Its defining fact is a safety one: because the fontanelle is open (unfused, no bone over the brain) in infants, the point is prohibited in infants — a caution its very name encodes. In adults it is needled subcutaneously over the fused skull.

A safety note that outranks every TCM claim on this page. Do not needle DU-22 in an infant, and treat any infantile convulsion as a medical emergency. This is recorded as strongly as the library can.

A note on searching for it. “DU 22”, “GV 22” and “Xinhui” searches return protocol trials and unrelated material — and “Xinhui” is a very common Chinese given and place name. Any claim attached to this point should be checked against what a study actually used.

Source: Sacred Lotus sources & references (action, indication, location and needling records; the recorded infant prohibition and the DU-20 record queried, against our own data).