Smooth Recovery from Pneumophagia through Tokito / 日本東洋医学雑誌

ABSTRACT

Kampo medicine has been used for patients with pneumophagia to improve deficiency and stagnation of qi. Here, we report a case in which symptoms were alleviated by treating spleen yang deficiency and liver qi stagnation as the main pathogenesis. The patient was a 75-year-old woman. She was diagnosed with atrophic gastritis after a close examination of her gastric discomfort. She took antacids and proton pump inhibitors, but the condition did not improve. Her abdominal distension and belching also appeared and worsened, so she requested Kampo treatment. Since she had interior cold with qi stagnation, we prescribed tokito that is able not only to warm interior cold but also to adjust qi sufficiently. The pathology of pneumophagia is generally considered to be stagnation of qi mainly and concomitant with deficiency of qi. However, for those having interior cold like this case, a medicine that can firmly perform warm supplementation is necessary, and tokito is considered to be a candidate for the condition. Strangled pain is mentioned as the main targeted symptom of tokito, and it is often administered for abdominal or chest pain. Although, in this case, abdominal pain might have occurred if the condition had worsened further, it is important to utilize tokito in the case of qi stagnation and yang deficiency regardless whether patients have pain or not.