• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.53-65
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• 2009

Objectives : This study was to investigate the effect of Oriental medical treatment on ALS. Methods : We investigated 12 ALS patients which were admitted to Gwang-Ju O.M. hospital from Oct. 14, 2008 to Nov. 14, 2008. All patients were treated by SAAM-acupuncture, herb medication, Bee venom Pharmacopuncture therapy, Needle-embedding therapy, etc. We evaluated patients using the Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Functional Rating Scale-Revised(ALSFRS-R), Medical Research Council (MRC) Scale. Results : After 30 days, mean ALSFRS-R score of patients was improved from $28.42{\pm}7.83$ to $29.08{\pm}7.99$, and mean MRC Scale of patients was improved from $24.79{\pm}8.37$ to $25.34{\pm}8.45$. But in both cases, the variation was not statistically significant. After 30 days, mean ALSFRS-R score and mean MRC Scale of patients was more improved in subjects with bulbar-onset, onset age: 51-60yrs., disease duration: 24-48mo. And the results showed partially significant difference. Conclusions : We think that the results of this case be a pilot study that proves the effect of Oriental Medical treatment on ALS.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.189-200
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• 2016

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to report the clinical effect of Korean medical treatment on spinal cord infarction. Methods : We treated a patient who was diagnosed with spinal cord infarction. We used acupuncture, bee venom pharmacopuncture, herbal medicine, moxibustion and physical therapy. We evaluated the patient through Manual Muscle Testing (MMT) and International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury (ISNCSCI) score. Results : MMT grade improved grade from 1 to 5 and ISNCSCI score increased from 2 to 14. Conclusion : According to these results, this report suggests that Korean medical treatment could be effective for spinal cord infarction.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.67-75
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to report the effectiveness of diarrhea-inducing treatment by Gamsui-mal for lumbar spinal stenosis. During hospitalization four patients with lumbar spinal stenosis were treated with diarrhea-inducing treatment by Gamsui-mal and acupuncture, herbal medicine, moxibustion, cupping treatment, Bee-venom pharmacopuncture. Before treatment, we explained in detail about diarrhea-inducing treatment by Gamsui-mal and patients agreed with treatment. The symptoms appeared in patients of diarrhea, abdominal pain, and vomiting in the treatment process. We evaluated the degree of improvement by visual analogue scale (VAS), oswestry disability index (ODI). After treatment, we found that pain was reduced and patient's symptoms were improved by visual analogue scale (VAS), oswestry disability index (ODI) score. The results show that diarrhea-inducing treatment by Gamsui-mal was rapidly improving symptoms. Further studies are needed to clarify the effect of diarrhea-inducing treatment by Gamsui-mal.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.52-60
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• 2018

Background: This was a retrospective review of published articles reporting acupuncture and moxibustion treatment of peroneal nerve palsy. Methods: On-line database searches were carried out using; Cochrane Library, Pubmed, CNKI, NDSL and OASIS to find articles reporting acupuncture and moxibustion treatment for peroneal nerve palsy. Duplicate articles and studies that were not relevant to the topic were excluded, along with review articles and commentaries. Results: 20 studies were selected, 18 clinical case studies (47 patients) and 2 randomized controlled trials (154 patients). Intervention treatments included acupuncture, moxibustion, bee-venom (BV), pharmacopuncture, electroacupuncture and acupotomy. Surprisingly, although peroneal nerve palsy is not a very rare disease, only 2 studies out of 20 carried out a randomized controlled trial. Conclusion: Although studies to date report the efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion treatment in peroneal nerve palsy patients, the absence of objective evaluation and the absence in the reporting of side-effects remains an issue.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.229-236
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• 2015

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to report the clinical effect of Korean medical treatment on a spinal cord tumor. Methods : We treated a patient who was diagnosed with a spinal cord tumor. We used acupuncture, bee venom pharmacopuncture, herbal medicine, moxibustion and physical therapy; the patient was evaluated using the visual analogue scale(VAS) and given an International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury(ISNCSCI) score. Results : VAS decreased and ISNCSCI score increased meaningfully. Conclusions : According to these results, this report possibly suggests that Korean medical treatment could be a helpful choice for treating a spinal cord tumor.

• The Journal of Churna Manual Medicine for Spine and Nerves
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.83-96
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• 2017

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to investigate the trends of acupuncture treatment on lateral epicondylitis. Methods : We investigated the recent clinical studies of acupuncture treatment for lateral epicondylitis via searching PubMed from 2007.1.1. to 2016.1.1. This study examined published years, the authors, journals, countries, types of study and classified articles by techniques of acupuncture. Results : 20 theses out of 38 were included, excluding papers duplicated or whose texts are not identified or not satisfying both acupuncture and lateral epicondylitis simultaneously. The theses were constantly published every year. Analyzed by journal, the most published journal was Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. The studies of China had the greatest number of the searched theses. The types of study were reviews, case series, and study protocol. The acupuncture technique used were Hwachim(burning acupuncture therapy), sweet bee venom pharmacopuncture, percutaneous needle electrolysis, electroacupuncture, small needle-knife, combination with local points and Tianzong(SI11), and anti-ashi-point. Conclusions : In order to develop acupuncture treatment of lateral epicondylitis, clinical studies on high level with objective evaluation scale are needed.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.7-17
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• 2014

Objectives: Condurango is widely used in various systems of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) against oesophageal and stomach ailments including certain types of cancer. However, until now no systematic study has been conducted to verify its efficacy and dose with proper experimental support. Therefore, we examined if ethanolic extract of Condurango could ameliorate benzo[a]pyrene (BaP)-induced lung cancer in rats, in vivo to validate its use as traditional medicine. Methods: Fifteen male and 15 female Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were treated with 0.28 mg/kg of Sweet Bee Venom (SBV) (high-dosage group) and the same numbers of male and female SD rats were treated with 0.2 mL/kg of normal saline (control group) for 13 weeks. We selected five male and five female SD rats from the high-dosage group and the same numbers of male and female SD rats from the control group, and we observed these rats for four weeks. We conducted body-weight measurements, ophthalmic examinations, urinalyses and hematology, biochemistry, histology tests. Results: A histological study revealed gradual progress in lung tissue-repair activity in Condurango-fed cancer-bearing rats, showing gradual tissue recovery after three months of drug administration. Condurango has the capacity to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), which may contribute to a reduction in anti-oxidative activity and to an induction of oxidative stress-mediated cancer cell-death. Condurango-activated pro-apoptotic genes (Bax, caspase-3, caspase-9, p53, cytochrome-c, apaf-1, ICAD and PARP) and down-regulated antiapoptotic-Bcl-2 expression were noted both at mRNA and protein levels. Studies on caspase-3 activation and PARP cleavage by western blot analysis revealed that Condurango induced apoptosis through a caspase-3-dependent pathway. Conclusion: The anticancer efficacy of an ethanolic extract of Condurango for treating BaP-induced lung cancer in rats lends support for its use in various traditional systems of medicine.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.145-156
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to review experimental studies of Parkinson's Disease in Korean medical journals, which have been published since 1990. Methods: Experimental studies related to Parkinson's disease published in Korean medical journals, registered with Korea research foundation, were searched. Articles were grouped into journal of publication, subject, and publication year. Experimental study subjects and models were analysed. Results and Conclusions: Twenty-two articles about experimental studies of Parkinson's Disease in Korean medical journals were included in our review. There were 13 articles in which herbs were used for treatment, 4 articles in which bee venom was used for treatment, 4 articles in which acupuncture was used for treatment, and 1 article in which pharmacopuncture was used for treatment. Most of the studies used experimental models of MPTP-induced Parkinson's disease and MTT assay was used to analyse cell toxicity and cell viability. Pole test, rotarod test, Morris water maze test, and forced swimming test were commonly used to analyse MPTP-induced behavioral deficits in animals. Analysis on experimental studies of Parkinson's disease was categorized into the subjects of dopaminergic cell protective effect, cell-apoptosis protectiveness, anti-inflammatory effect, and anti-oxidative effect.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.109-119
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• 2004

Objective : To broaden our understanding on occupational disease of market workers and to evaluate the effect of TKM treatment focusing on acupuncture and herb medicine and to promote base studies and clinical trials on occupational disease. Materials and Methods : Analysis was done on 33 Ga-Rak market workers' chart which had been selected through investigation of 1508 outpatient's chart of Kyung Won University Hospital from Jun. 1st, 2002 to May. 31th, 2003. Results : 1. Out of 33 patients, Men had more occupational diseases than women had and Most people were in their forties. 2. Major cause of the disease include repetitve bending, heavy weight lifting and overwork. 3. Past History of patients mostly include frequent lumbar sprain, periarthritis of shoulder, lumbar HNP 4. The patients with occupational disease were diagnosed as lumbar sprain, periarthritis of shoulder, lumbar HNP, degenerative spondylosis, spinal stenosis and their chief complaints were low back pain, omalgia, back pain with radicular pain. 5. The duration of treatment was mostly within a week. 6. Acupuncture, Bee Venom Acupuncture, moxibustion, Herb-medicine, extract, taping therapy, physical therapy were used as treatment methods. 7. Applied herb medicine were composed of 8 kinds of prescriptions and extract were made up of 6 prescriptions 8. Applied acupoints belonged mainly to 14 meridians 9. The treatment of herb medicine combined with acupuncture proved effective in treating the ocupational disease. Conclusion : The occupational disease of patients working in Ga-Rak market were closely related with overwork, especially with repetitive bending and heavy weight lifting and TKM treatment focusing on acupuncture combined with herb medicine was effective in treating occupational disease.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.137-148
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• 2016

Objectives : This study was performed to review articles concerning acupuncture or moxibustion treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Methods : On-line databases including PubMed, Cochrane Library, Ovid-EMBASE, NDSL and OASIS were searched to find articles concerning acupuncture or moxibustion treatment for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Several overlapping articles and those not relevant to the topic were excluded, as well as review articles and commentaries. Results : 16 case reports were selected through the procedure, all of which presented successful treatment cases of Complex Regional Pain Syndromes with acupuncture and moxibustion. Most of them presented one single patient case and were published in Korea. However, almost half of them were printed in English, and had been continuously published since 2005. It was remarkable that pharmacopuncture was predominantly used to treat Complex Regional Pain Syndromes. Also, we noted that Chinese scalp acupuncture needs to be studied further as two successful cases were presented from the U.S army. Conclusion : The results show that several case reports have been published regarding Complex Regional Pain Syndromes treated with acupuncture and moxibustion. However, all of them were case reports which are given low status in Evidence-Based Medicine. We expect that a more diverse range of articles, including case control studies, cohort studies and randomized controlled trials will be performed in the near future, and that a unified outcome measure will be developed for Complex Regional Pain Syndromes.