Chinese hospital has come up with a novel way to cure near-sightedness in children – by sticking bristles from a pig in their eyes.

The affiliated hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine says the treatment has the same theory behind it as acupuncture.

Doctors use pig bristles to enter children’s tear ducts and stimulate the so called “Jingming point”, commonly used to treat eye problems in traditional Chinese medicine.

“We don’t use the usual needles, but pig bristles, which are the right size and more flexible,” said Zhu Ningyun, director of the hospital’s eye department.

Zhu says the treatment is proving effective at preventing and curing “lazy eye” in children and a number of other ailments.

He added: “We want to promote this treatment, to prevent near-sightedness and other problem areas before it’s too late.”

The hospital has contacted nearby primary schools and provided treatment to some nine-year-old children recently.

According to a survey jointly conducted by the ministries of Health and Education, in 2004 28 per cent of elementary-school students, 60 per cent of junior middle-school students and 85 per cent of senior middle-school students in China were near-sighted, giving China the largest population of near-sighted people in the world, reported People’s Daily.