Abstract
Pruritus is [CHECK DEFN] itchy feeling of one's skin. We often face stroke patients who complain about Pruritus. They occasionally fail to fall asleep or have a secondary infection as a result of scratching. For these reasons, severe Pruritus brings down general condition and interferes with recovery. The causes of Pruritus are distributed to from skin diseases and from internal diseases. Especially among the skin diseases, Xerotic Eczema, which is called Senile Eczema causes the dry skin in the elderly, especially lower limb's extensor part. According to the epidemiology, 20% of the old have Xerotic Eczema. In oriental medicine, Pruritus is called Pungsoyang(風瘙痒), Pungyang(風痒), Yangpung(痒風), Sinyang(身痒). The cause of Pruritus is divided into two. One is endogenous factors and the other is exogenous factors. The former are deficiency of blood(血虛), blood fever(血熱), wind-heat due to internal damage(內傷風熱), damp-heat in the liver and gallbladder(肝膽濕熱), endogenous wind stirring in the liver(肝風內動), deticiency syndrome of the spleen(脾虛), deficiency of Yin of the liver and kidneys(肝腎陰虛) and deficiency of the Penetration and Conception Vessels(衝任不足). The latter are wind-cold due to exogenous affection(外感風寒) and wind-heat due to exogenous affection(外感風寒). We report two stroke patients who complained of severe Pruritus They were diagnosed as having Xerotic Eczema by a dermatologist. We regarded their Pruritus as blood fever(血熱) and wind-heat(風熱) and prescribed Sopung-San to these patients. These patients showed significant improvement.