A Study of the Term 'Dermatology' in Oriental Medicine

동서의 피부 질환 명칭에 대한 소고

Objectives: In order to establish a base for proper treatment and management of patients with dermal problems through correct diagnosis, I considered the naming rule for dermatology in Oriental Medicine, referring to the dermatology literature compared to western medicine. In addition, this paper examines the characteristic classification of dermatology. Methods: I examined the naming rule of dermatology in Oriental Medicine and then compared the disease names in Oriental and Western medicine and the characteristic classification of dermatology referred to the records. Results: The dermal diseases have been named according to their colors and morphologies, causes, progress of symptoms, recurrent sites, the character of distribution, recurrent seasons, ages, the character of patients' jobs and locations. Sometimes some have been named by referring to their main morphologies, sites, causes, colors and seasons synthetically. However it was found some names for dermal diseases, even though the same diseases, had been named differently according to for example: historical times, condition of locations and the quality of doctors whose process of naming developed and changed over time. The relationship between Oriental and Western medicine of each name for dermal diseases is basically divided into 5 types: same names - same diseases; same names but different diseases; same diseases but different names; one disease with multiple names; and one name with multiple diseases. Considering the methods of classification, these were generally achieved according to their places of origin. It is a method unique to Oriental medicine that we classified some dermal diseases into 疥, 癬, 瘡, 風, 丹, 疱, 疹, 癰, 痘, 疽 and so on and it is very easy to diagnose which part they belong to. This was classified by putting first the causes of diseases; for instance: viruses, bacteria, fungi. Sometimes, however there was a problem, connected to the classification of morphology. Conclusions: I suggest that we need to unify and refine dermatological terms in Oriental Medicine in order to establish a base for proper treatment and management of patients with dermal problems through correct diagnoses.