<b>Three Cases of Hemodialysis Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome that were Successfully Treated with Goshakusan</b> / 日本東洋医学雑誌

ABSTRACT

In this report, we describe three hemodialysis patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) that were successfully treated with Goshakusan, one of the well-known traditional Japanese herbal (Kampo) medicines. <br>Case 1 was a 77-year-old woman suffering from sleep disorder due to night pain in the bilateral forearms. Case 2 was a 66-year-old woman complaining of sleep disorder due to lancinating pain in right upper and lower limb. They had undergone surgical decompression procedures for CTS several times in the bilateral forearms. However, they still needed a periodical injection of glucocorticoid into the region of carpal tunnel for the relief from pain. Case 3 was a 54-year-old man, who has been suffering from the recurrence of numbness of the left fingers since surgical treatment for CTS. <br>We diagnosed that the symptom of CTS in those three patients may be due to kan-shitsu (damp-cold or interior cold with dampness), because all of them were anuric hemodialysis patients, who tend to easily acquire phlegm and dampness, and their symptom was partially relieved by warming the forearm and fingers. Therefore, they were prescribed an oral goshakusan extract formula to remove kan-shitsu. Soon after they started taking the formula, the intensity of their pain or numbness markedly decreased. Taken together, our report suggests that it is worth trying to remove kan-shitsu by Kampo medicines for the conservative treatment of CTS.