• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.417-421
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• 2018

Carboxytherapy is very similar to mesotherapy in terms of methods, conditions it treats, and outcomes. An important difference consider, however, is that carboxytherapy administers carbon dioxide gas into the subcutaneous layer, just underneath the skin, whereas mesotherapy administers a cocktail of vitamins, minerals, and drugs and into the mesoderm of the skin. There have been many previous case reports of complications of mesotherapy such as hematoma, granulomatous panniculitis, cellulitis, and abscesses. However, complications of carboxytherapy have rarely been reported because the carbon dioxide gas is absorbed within a week and is infused into the subcutaneous and superficial layers. A 27-year-old woman who had twice undergone carboxytherapy to reduce abdominal fat (3 days and 2 weeks ago) at an oriental medical clinic visited the emergency department due to high fever, myalgia, severe back pain, and subcutaneous emphysema from the buttocks to the lower chest wall area. A computed tomography (CT) scan was performed for diagnosis and treatment. We immediately started broad spectrum antibiotics and consulted with the department of radiology, which could not rule out acute peritonitis due to needle injury. A radiologist confirmed abdominal myositis and needle puncture induced acute pyelonephritis. Pyelonephritis can even lead to septicemia, which can have fatal consequences. Therefore, if the patient has costovertebral or back pain after undergoing needle puncture or acupuncture therapy, the emergency physcians need careful initial evaluation for diagnosis and treatment.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.8-18
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• 2015

Objectives: There have been several studies evaluated effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on spasticity but most studies could not assess spasticity quantitatively because they used clinical rating scales for assessment spasticity. The objective of this study is to evaluate effect of EA on poststroke spasticity quantitatively using tendon reflex (T-reflex). Methods: 29 stroke patients with upper extremity spasticity were randomized to EA group and control group. The EA group received combined EA and rehabilitation therapy 5 times a week for 3 weeks. Acupuncture treatment was given at Jian Yu (LI 15), Qu Chi (LI 11), Shao Hai (HT 3), Wai Guan (TE 5), He Gu (LI 4), Lie Que (LU 7), Hou Xi (SI 3) of the affected side, 30 minutes of electrical stimulation with a frequency of 40/13 Hz was applied at Qu Chi (LI 11), He Gu (LI 4). The control group received only rehabilitation therapy. The efficacy of treatment was assessed using T-reflex latency and amplitude, modified Ashworth scale (MAS) of biceps brachii, brachioradialis and triceps brachii. Fugl-Meyer motor function assessment (FMA) and functional independence measure (FIM) were also measured to assess motor function and functional independence. All outcomes were measured before treatment, immediately after 3 weeks of treatment and 1 week after 3 weeks of treatment. Results: No statistically significant differences were found in outcomes including T-reflex between the study groups except for FIM values immediately after 3 weeks of treatment (p=0.037). Conclusions: These results suggest that 3 weeks of EA does not reduce poststroke upper extremity spasticity electrophysiologically and clinically. However, small sample sizes and contradictory tendency between results from T-reflex and those from MAS require cautious judgement on interpretation of the results. A larger, well-designed clinical trials for quantitative evaluation of effect of EA on poststroke spasticity will be needed.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.379-386
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• 2010

This study evaluated the motion of tumors during the entire period of therapy and the accuracy of radiosurgery among forty eight lung tumor patients who were underwent radiosurgery using the CyberKnife Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System. The motion of lung tumor was measured by the coordinates of a gold acupuncture needle inserted into the tumor or the area around the tumor using the CyberKnife image guided system. Then the accuracy of radiosurgery was evaluated based on the error of correlation computed with the motion tracking system. The lung tumor motion is Cranio-Caudal direction by an average of $2.63{\pm}1.87\;mm$, moved left-right direction by $1.13{\pm}0.71\;mm$, and anterior-posterior direction by $1.74{\pm}1.16\;mm$. The degree of rotational movement was $1.66{\pm}1.66^{\circ}$ on X axis, $1.20{\pm}0.97^{\circ}$ on Y axis, and $1.18{\pm}0.73^{\circ}$ on Z axis. The vector of translation movement was measured to be $3.78{\pm}2.00\;mm$ on the average. The results show that directions of Cranio-Caudal(p < 0.001), anterior-posterior direction(p < 0.029), and three dimensional vector value(p < 0.002) showed statistical significance, because the lower side of tumor showed more intensive movement compared to the upper side of tumor. The radiosurgery was carried out by compensating the motion of tumor after accurate investigation of the correlation error with the average of $0.95{\pm}0.62\;mm$ during the lung tumor radiosurgery with the CyberKnife Synchrony Respiratory Tracking System.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.1191-1205
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• 2018

Objectives: This study was performed to review clinical research trends in the treatment of primary headache disorders with pharmacopuncture. Methods: We searched clinical studies on primary headache disorders treated with pharmacopuncture in four electronic databases including OASIS, RISS, CNKI, and Pubmed. The selected studies were analyzed with regard to study design, subject, intervention, evaluation, and result. Results: Five randomized controlled trials, one non-randomized controlled trial, one before-and-after study, and six case series were selected. Most of the studies showed that pharmacopuncture treatment was significantly effective in treating primary headache disorders; however, the quality of the randomized controlled trials was low. Conclusions: According to this study, pharmacopuncture could be a useful treatment option for primary headache disorders. Based on these results, further studies on the effectiveness and safety of pharmacopuncture for primary headache disorders should be performed in the near future.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.13-37
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of Korean medicine for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We analyzed the result of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that applied Korean medicine to NAFLD patients through meta analysis and systematic review. Methods: The key question was to the effects of Korean medicine for NAFLD patients according to the PICO-SD (participants, intervention, comparison, outcome, study design) and we included only RCTs. We searched 10 databases including NDSL, KMBASE, KISS, KISTI, KoreaMed, Koreantk, OASIS, Cochrane, Pubmed, EMBASE without a language restriction. We assessed risk of bias by Cochrane group's Risk of Bias tool. Results: The finally selected 12 RCTs were analyzed. Total number of participants was 1189 (male 719, female 470) as 684 and 505 in the oriental medicine group (i.e. herbal drugs, acupuncture, acupoint embedding therapy) and control group (conventional drugs, placebo), respectively. The meta analysis results of examining 7 RCTs comparing the therapeutic efficacy of herbal medicine with that of Western medicine showed statistically significant (p<0.05) differences in the efficacy evaluation, liver function test results, blood lipids, and TNF-${\alpha}$. Furthermore, the meta analysis results of investigating 3 RCTs comparing the therapeutic efficacy of herbal medicine with that of a placebo showed statistically significant (p<0.05) differences in the liver function test results, blood lipids, and waist circumference. Conclusions: The research showed that Korean medicine for NAFLD can be effective treatment. But more studies are required to enhance the level of evidence and we should report on safety.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and Dermatology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.210-227
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• 2021

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to report the Korean medicine treatment on whole-body nummular eczema. Methods : This case study was conducted with a 66-year-old female patient who has whole-body nummular eczema treated by Korean medicine. She was treated from 2021.3.30 to 2021.6.28. During the treatment, the two herbal medicines were changed depending on the patient's condition. We treated her with herbal medicine, herbal external preparations and acupuncture treatment. For the evaluation of the results, we used photo comparison, VAS, and DLQI. Results : After the treatment, the nummular eczema lesions of patient was remarkably improved. Also, the VAS grade of other symptoms such as pruritus, burning sense, oozing, crusting and erythema were decreased and DLQI score changed from 27 to 2. Conculsions : This study suggests that Korean medicine treatments are effective for patient with recurrent nummular eczema.

• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.75-85
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• 2021

Objectives: This study reported about a patient with a right middle cerebral artery infarction whose gait disturbance was improved by Korean medicine treatment. Methods: The patient was treated with a Korean herbal medicine (Gami-yukmijihwang-tang) along with acupuncture, electroacupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, and physical therapy. The treatment effect was evaluated with the manual muscle test (MMT) and the Korean version of the modified Barthel index (K-MBI). The gait of the patient was evaluated by a 10-m walk test (10MWT), the timed up and go (TUG) test, the functional ambulation profile (FAP) score, and the functional ambulatory category (FAC) score. Spatiotemporal parameters were evaluated using a walkway system (GAITRite®, CIR Systems, Inc., USA). Results: After 83 days of traditional Korean medicine treatment, the K-MBI and FAC scores improved from 50 to 70 and from 1 to 4, respectively. The 10MWT and TUG tests also improved from 24.86 to 16.66 sec and from 22.35 to 17.62 sec, respectively. GAITRite® measurements reflected gait improvements: the FAP score improved from 55 to 86 sec; the step time improved from 0.72 to 0.669 sec; the step length improved from 31.076 cm to 41.284 cm; the gait velocity improved from 42.8 cm/sec to 64.1 cm/sec; the cadence improved from 93.6 steps/min to 90.8 steps/min. No adverse effects resulting from treatment or evaluation occurred during the admission period. Conclusions: This study suggests that traditional Korean medicine treatment may reduce symptoms and improve the quality of life in patients with cerebral infarction.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2023

Objectives : This study aims to provide information regarding the status and quality of mobile applications (MAs) using self-acupressure by performing a systematic review. Methods : We conducted comprehensive searching on five international databases and two app markets from inception to July 31, 2022 to identify MAs using self-acupressure. We analyzed the characteristics of each MA regarding the name of the MA, registered app markets, target symptoms, developers, the year and country of development, cost, target age, media function, and expertise. We assessed the quality of each MA using Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). Results : We identified a total of 30 MAs using self-acupressure (25 MAs from the app market and 6 MAs from clinical studies, with 1 MA in common). 17 out of 24 MAs from the app market provided self-acupressure regimens for various symptoms and the others provided regimens for specific symptoms such as memory, anxiety, depression, asthma, allergy, low back pain, and headache. 14 developers were reported. 23 MAs were developed after 2013. The largest number of MAs were developed in the United States. The target age group of 12 MAs was above the age of 3, and that of 11 MAs was above the age of 12. 14 MAs provided multimedia functions such as videos. 13 MAs provided information of expertise. From clinical studies, only 3 out of 6 MAs were accessible through the app market. 4 MAs were developed by the researchers of the study. In terms of MARS, the score of MAs from the app market was higher than that of MAs from clinical studies in both objective and subjective evaluation areas. Conclusions : This study summarizes the characteristics of MAs using self-acupressure. More MAs using self-acupressure should be developed and further clinical research for MA on each symptom and disease is warranted for the diversification of MA fields using self-acupressure.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.31-44
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• 2023

Objectives The purpose of this study is to check the research trends of pharmacopuncture treatment in nerve entrapment syndrome, identify specific techniques, identify which pharmacopuncture are used, and provide directions for future research. Methods This study was conducted based on the five steps suggested by Arksey and O'Malley. We searched five domestic databases (Research Information Sharing Service, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, Korean studies Information Service System, Science ON, and KMBASE) and identified studies with key search terms like "nerve entrapment" And "pharmacopuncture" until June 23, 2023. Results Twenty-nine studies were finally selected. among them, 25 papers were non-comparative studies (86.2%). The most common disease was carpal tube syndrome (n=10). All the investigated studies were treated by injecting pharmacopuncture into the pathway of the entraped nerve. The depth of pharmacopuncture injection was mentioned only in 13 studies. As for the pharmacopuncture used, sweet bee venom was 8 studies and bee venom was 6 studies, and about half of the pharmacopuncture manufactured with Bee venom as the main component accounted for. Conclusions This study is a scoping review of the pharmacopuncture treatment for nerve entrapment, which was first conducted in Korea. The treatment is mainly performed on the path way of the entraped nerve. After that, it is necessary to study the standardization of the specific technique method of pharmacopuncture and the uniformity of evaluation criteria.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.29-49
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• 2024

Objectives The purpose of this study is to systemically review the recent studies in the Korean medicine treatments for torticollis. Methods We search the clinical studies from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2023. The studies were searched through 10 databases (Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, Korean studies Information Service System, Research Information Sharing Service, Korean Medical Database, ScienceON, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, Wanfang Data, China National Knowledge Infrastructure). Results A total of 19 studies were included in the study. 12 studies were case report studies, 5 studies were randomized controlled trials, 2 studies were non-randomized controlled trials. Of the 19 interventions, Chuna was the most used in this study and of the 28 evaluation tools, Sternocleidomastoid thickness was the most used in this study except efficiency rate. All 19 studies had improvements after treatment, and 8 studies had statistically significant improvements. As a result of the study, we found that Chuna, GB, GB20, BL10, Glycyrrhiza uralensis were commonly used Korean medicine treatments for torticollis. Conclusions We analyzed the Korean medicine treatments for torticollis. Through this study, we found that the Korean medicine was effective for torticollis. However, more research is needed to confirm the more detailed effect.