A Case in Which Byakujutsubushito Responded to Extremity Pain / 日本東洋医学雑誌

The patient was an 84-­year-­old woman living in a nursing home. Her chief complaint was difficulty in mov­ing her body due to extreme pain. She could not lie down especially in a supine position because of severe un­identified somatic pain from left side of lower chest to flank. According to her family, she had been taking 2-­3 L of water daily at her nursing home to avoid dehydration even in the wintertime. Therefore she urinated fre­quently, but she also had constipation for several days. Since NSAIDs had been not effective, byakujutsu­bushito was administered from the first day of her hospitalization. Accordingly, her constipation improved and her pain quickly faded away. We inferred that her pain resulted from “fluid disturbance” caused by massive in­take of water in the wintertime in Aizu region. We believe that byakujutsubushito is a useful Kampo medicine for the treatment of pain resulting from “wind-­dampness” along with keishibushito and kanzobushito.

<b>A Case of Extremity Pain Onset During Rainy Season Successfully Treated Using B</b><b>yakujutsubushito</b> / 日本東洋医学雑誌

The patient was a 45-year-old woman who began suffering from pain in her extremities 1 year and 6 months previously, and who received Oketsu-reducing Kampo. Her pain disappeared in a year. Six months after her treatment ended, she visited our hospital again complaining of the same symptom. Due to strong signs of Oketsu, we prescribed her a Kampo that reduces Oketsu, but her pain largely persisted. On re-examination, we noticed that her condition had occurred during the rainy season on both instances and speculated that high humidity and strong ‘wind' may be the reason. Therefore, Byakujutsubushito was prescribed for her, and her pain disappeared in 2 weeks. However, in the following rainy season, she visited us again complaining of the same pain, and Byakujutsubushito was again administered, and that relieved her from pain in 11 days. Although it is stated that Byakujutsubushito is useful for the treatment of pain resulting from dampness and ‘wind', there are very a few reports on this in the <i>Kinkiyoryaku </i>text. Nowadays, we live in air-conditioned spaces, and high humidity results in ‘cool wind’ and exterior dampness. Frequent movement in and out of such spaces worsens extremity pain, and we believe that the incidence of this condition is increasing. And we believe that Byakujutsubushito is one of the most useful formulations for the treatment of this condition that occurs during rainy season.