• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.1248-1258
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• 2019

Objective: The purpose of this study was to report the radiological and symptomatic changes in a patient with acute herniated lumbar disc due to coughing, treated with megadose pharmacopuncture and combined Korean medicine. Methods: MRI examination diagnosed an acute lumbar disc herniation by coughing. We performed a combination treatment of megadose pharmacopuncture and integrated Korean medicine. NRS, ODI, EQ-5D, SLR test, and big toe extension test were checked on admission, after two weeks, on discharge, and after four months to confirm symptom improvements. Results: In the acute stage of lumbar intervertebral disc rupture, megadose pharmacopuncture combined with Korean medicine treatment showed improvement in NRS, ODI, EQ-5D, SLRT, and big toe extension tests. In addition, absorption of the herniated intervertebral discs was observed through an MRI scan on discharge. Conclusions: For patients with herniated lumbar disc acutely deteriorated by coughing, a combination of megadose pharmacopuncture with Korean medicine treatment may be a solution.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.88-96
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• 2020

Objectives: Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) is caused by a circulatory disorder. If symptoms are not present, the patient's progress is observed, but if symptoms are present, non-surgical methods or total hip replacement are performed. Several case reports have described the effects of Korean Medicine treatment on ONFH, but the number of cases is still small, and few studies have used blood stasis-based herbal medicines like Hwaeo-jeon (HEJ). This study reports the effectiveness of Korean Medicine treatments, including HEJ, on a case of ONFH. Methods: A patient diagnosed with ONFH by CT and MRI was treated with Korean Medicine treatments consisting of herbal medicine including HEJ, bee venom pharmacopuncture, acupuncture, cupping, and physical therapy. The improvement of pain was assessed using a numerical rating scale. Inflammation levels were determined by blood tests conducted during hospitalization. Results: Korean Medicine treatment, including herbal medicine, resulted in good clinical improvement responses, including reduced pain, improved mobility, and reduced inflammatory levels in the blood tests. Conclusions: Korean Medicine treatments, including HEJ, may be effective for ONFH patients. Further studies are needed to determine the recovery of osteonecrosis and the improvement of post-operative aftereffects using Korean Medicine treatments, as well as the reduction of pre-operative pain.

• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.43-54
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• 2019

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to assess the use of Korean medicine for treating radial nerve palsy. Methods : We searched for studies on the use of Korean medicine for the treatment of radial nerve palsy in 7 electronic databases and analyzed these studies. Results : We found 95 studies on radial nerve palsy from 7 electronic databases. We excluded 77 duplicate studies, 1 review article and 2 studies published before 2000. As a result, 15 case studies(36 patients) were included. Acupuncture(15 times), electroacupuncture(6 times), pharmacopuncture(9 times), herbal medicine(11 times), physical therapy(10 times), moxibustion(3 times), cupping therapy(1 time), chuna manual therapy(1 time) and yinyang balancing appliance(1 time) were used. LI11 for acupuncture, LI4, LI11 for electroacupuncture, bee venom as pharmacopuncture material and LI4, LI10, LI11 in pharmacopuncture point, Boik-tang gami as herbal medicine, hot pack for physical therapy, LI4, LI11 for moxibustion were the most frequently used. Conclusions : Korean medicine treatment for radial nerve palsy has been performed in various ways. However, we found limited evidence regarding Korean medicine for radial nerve palsy. Thus, we think various types of studies including more case reports, for radial nerve palsy should be performed in the future.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.149-163
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• 2009

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to review RCTs on pharmacopuncture treatment for musculoskeletal diseases and to establish standards of pharmacopuncture treatment model. Methods : We searched articles up to date of March 2009 via computerized databases of Pubmed, The Journal of Korean Acupuncture & Moxibustion, Journal of Korean institute of Herbal Acupuncture, Journal of Oriental Rehabilitation and Journal of Korean Oriental Medicine. Only Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) concerning the effects of pharmacopuncture on musculoskeletal diseases. The pharmacopuncture treatment methods were assessed based on STRICTA and items considering the feature of pharmacopuncture. And the methodological quality of the trials was assessed by FEAS and modified Jadad score. Results : Eighteen trials of pharmacopuncture on musculoskeletal diseases were analyzed. Except for 4 trials comparing the effect of SBV and BV, positive outcome was reported in ten trials. Among eighteen trials; most of the trials were about Bee Venom acupuncture, and most of the trials used about five acupuncture points, mainly local acupuncture points. But, the amount of injection to each point and total injection were various. And most of trials were lack in the information about method of stimulation. The adjusted FEAS score ranged from 0 to 12, and modified Jadad scoreranged from 1 to 5. Conclusions: To standardize pharmacopuncture treatment, we need more well-designed, high quality clinical trials. And methodological assessment tools designed for pharmacopuncture treatment are also needed.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.163-173
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• 2008

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to see the effect of beevenom on inhibition of Alopecia Universalis. Methods : Beevenom was injected subcutaneously through the borderline of head scalp alopecia starting and, also, region feeling stiff tension. Results : Hair falling off seized and scalp tension was vanished. Conclusions : Beevenom seemed to inhibit the progression of Alopecia by recirculating the blood flow as stiff tension over head was solved and anti-inflammatory effect of beevenom seizing inflammation on the scalp. Further evaluation with big sample size control study would be required to manifest the rationale and effectness of Beevenom over Alopecia Universalis.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.137-148
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• 2016

Objectives : This study was performed to review articles concerning acupuncture or moxibustion treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Methods : On-line databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Ovid-EMBASE, NDSL and OASIS were searched to find articles concerning acupuncture or moxibustion treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Several overlapping articles and those not relevant to the topic were excluded, as well as review articles and commentaries. Results : 16 case reports were selected through the procedure, all of which presented successful treatment cases of Complex Regional Pain Syndromes with acupuncture and moxibustion. Most of them presented one single patient case and were published in Korea. However, almost half of them were printed in English, and had been continuously published since 2005. It was remarkable that pharmacopuncture was predominantly used to treat Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Also, we noted that Chinese scalp acupuncture needs to be studied further as two successful cases were presented from the U.S army. Conclusion : The results show that several case reports have been published regarding Complex Regional Pain Syndromes treated with acupuncture and moxibustion. However, all of them were case reports which are given low status in Evidence-Based Medicine. We expect that a more diverse range of articles, including case control studies, cohort studies and randomized controlled trials will be performed in the near future, and that a unified outcome measure will be developed for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.1023-1031
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• 2018

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of Korean medicine in a patient with sensory disturbance of the hands and feet diagnosed as hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease). Methods: A patient diagnosed with hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease) was treated with herbal medicine (Uchashinki-hwan-gami, Bosinji Granule, Ukgan-san-gami), acupuncture, moxibustion, and bee venom pharmacopuncture. Clinical improvements were evaluated using the numerical rating scale (NRS) and Toronto Clinical Neuropathy Score system (TCNSS). Results: Improvements in the total scores of NRS and TCNS were observed after Korean medicine treatments. NRS score decrease from 8 to 2, and TCNS score decreased from 10 to 7. Conclusion: Korean medicine treatment may be effective for sensory disturbance in hereditary motor and sensory neuropathy (Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease).

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.191-208
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• 2017

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to analyze the trend of pharmacopuncture in Korean patent in order to establish database for patent technology. Methods : Electronic literature searches for Korean patents related to pharmacopuncture were performed in two electronic databases (Korea Intellectual Property Right Information Service and National Digital Science Library) to June 2017. Patents that were not Korean ones, did not use medicinal herb, only described method of manufacture, or had nothing to do with pharmacopuncture were excluded in this study. The status and application date of patents, Medicinal herb, target diseases, International Patent Classification (IPC), model of experiment and extracting methods were analyzed. Results : A total of 379 patents were retrieved. Based on our inclusion/exclusion criteria, 297 patents were excluded. Of 82 included patents, 27 patents did not include experiments using pharmacopuncture, and 9 patents were invented for treating animals such as pig or calf. In IPC analysis, Bee Venom, Panax (ginseng), Angelica, and Paeoniaceae were used frequently. Musculoskeletal diseases were the most targeted diseases followed by nervous diseases. For extracting, hot water extraction, distillation extraction, and solvent extraction using alcohol, ethanol, or methanol for solvent were commonly used. Conclusions : These data are useful for inventing new patent and extending range of pharmacopuncture in clinical use, however, more systematically analyzed patent studies and pharmacopuncture-related studies for new application on various diseases are needed in further studies.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2006

This study was carried out to assess the usefulness of thermography for diagnosis and healing process of musculoskeletal disorder in horses. Horses with experimentally induced infectious arthritis were treated with bee venom or antibiotics for 5 weeks from 24 hours after inoculation of Staphylococcus aureus, the effectiveness of the 2 therapeutic drugs treatment was similar to each other. Thermographic evaluation was similar to any other tests, because the thermal pattern tend to return to normal with declining similar to those of clinical signs, laboratory experiments and healing of the lesion. This ability to assess inflammatory change noninvasively make thermography an ideal imaging tool to aid in the diagnosis of certain lameness condition or musculoskeletal disease in horses. These results suggested that thermographic evaluation in horses with musculoskeletal disorders were useful for diagnosis and helpful for monitoring of healing process.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.43-46
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• 2006

A 6-month-old thoroughbred filly foal had torticollis and circled towards the right side. A local veterinarian treated her twice using dexamethasone for 1 week but there was little clinical improvement. Needles were inserted into Ting points of both hind limb and one ocular acupoint (shang jiao area from GB01). Injection acupuncture (dexamethasone, twice/week) was used at GV16, GB20, BL10 and LU07, for the neck and head. Acupoint GB34 was added to those points at session 4. In addition, a trigger point in the left neck was injected with 0.2 ml ($200{\mu}g$ of apitoxin) of bee-venom diluted with 1 ml of 2% lidocaine from session 1 to session 3. At session 2, the symptoms had ameliorated a little. At session 3, they were much improved; the right ear was completely normal and the neck could be moved about 60% of normal range. At session 4, nodding was possible and stiffness of the neck was much improved, having returned to about 80% of normal range. Three days after session 4, the symptom of torticollis had disappeared completely and the foal could walk in a straight line. In conclusion, the present patient was a case with equine torticollis which showed favourable therapeutic response by combination of needle-acupuncture plus injection-acupuncture with dexamethasone and apitoxin.