Acupuncture has grown rapidly as a form of complementary medicine in the United Kingdom and is currently offered as a degree course in 12 institutions. The integral role of surface or living anatomy in the teaching of acupuncture has been apparent for millennia in China. However, the use of cadaveric or imaging anatomy in the teaching, practice and research of acupuncture is a relatively recent phenomenon.How best to use anatomical resources in teaching acupuncture is an increasingly relevant question, as is clarifying the scientific basis of the mechanisms underlying acupuncture. There is now an opportunity to broaden the anatomical education available to students of acupuncture and practising acupuncturists can engage more with evidence-based practice, through cadaveric teaching. Although the efficacy of acupuncture is strongly evidenced, an understanding of how and why it works will increase existing knowledge of the structure and function of the human body.Therefore, a pilot study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between the 6 meridians of the leg (on 6 lower limbs) and underlying anatomical structures. The region chosen for the investigation was the lower leg, between the plane of the lateral and medial malleoli distally and the plane of the knee crease in the popliteal fossa proximally. These surface markings are easily identified on cadaveric and living limbs and are used to locate acupuncture points. Approximately 75% of the acupuncture points in the region of the leg investigated coincided with a discrete anatomical structure (cutaneous nerve,vessel or intermuscular septum). Thus, anatomy may form the basis for a shared language between acupuncture and evidence-based medicine and the coincidence between acupuncture points and anatomical structures requires further investigation