ABSTRACT
The relationship between the drug effect and the time interval from operation or onset of hepatitis or hepatic damage to the beginning of the administration of Chinese herb medicines allowed us to postulate the usual clinical course of the disease as follows from the viewpoint of traditional Chinese medicine: namely two months after surgery or onset of the disease being the Yang stage, the four months after the Yang stage being the Yang-Yin transitional stage and after this being the Yin stage. The Yin stage was further divided into earlier and later periods, the border line being five years after the operation or onset of the disease.<BR>In the Yang stage the drug effect was mostly excellent, and the medicines used were mainly for Qi-fen and Re-zheng, as well as the medicines used in the Yang-Yin transitional stage when healing of the excellent cases and increase of the cases with good effect were characteristic. In the earlier Yin stage the cases with no effect began to increase, and the medicines used ranged from Qi-fen to Ying-fen . In the later Yin stage the cases with excellent effect disappeared, and the cases with good or no effect were dominant. In this stage the medicines for Xue-fen were sometimes added to the medicines for Qi-fen or Ying-fen, and relative increase of the medicines for Xu-han-zheng was noticed.