Lymphadema in one leg treatments?

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I am currious to see if anyone has any advice on the treatment of lymphadema in

one leg.

I have a 50 year old female patient who suffered a pitch fork in the foot

accident 35 years

ago and has had swelling in her leg ever since. The WM was poor lymph drainage

due to

damage of the lymph nodes in her foot. Recently in the past ten days her

swelling has

increased dramatically and now has a hard time walking. She is a muscian anand

has just

recently returned from a long tour riding in cramped conditions on a school bus,

so

obviously the lack of physical movement has restrcited the flow of the lymph.

I treated her with a deep Tui Na massage and used a few acupuncture needles

to help

stimulate drainage. I am now preparing a herbal formula and wandered what people

thought. My thinking was that there is definetly dampness, phlegm, and possibly

blood

stasis due to the old injury that started the condition. For the formula I have

started with a

base of san miao san and have worked from there.

Cang Zhu

Yi Yi Ren

Niu Xi

Huang Lian ( I used this herb instead of huang Bai because her toungue tip had a

canker

sore and was obviously red. It seems the road trip left her agitated. I wanted

to drain heart

fire, as well as fight any infection in her limb)

then I added:

 

Gui Zhi (network vessels)

Ru Xiang (network vessels and as well think about blood stasis from a chronic

conditon,

even though this extra swelling was relatively new)

Shen Qu (to protect the stomach from the adverse effects of the Ru Xiang)

Bai Zhu

Ze Xie

Ban Xia

Chen Pi

Du Hou

Gan Cao

 

I would love feed back and any discusion on this type of edema (which BTW is

only slightly

pitting). I can't find much literature on the treatment of one sided edema in

any textbooks

in chinese medicine, so I have been left somewhat to my own thinking.

Thanks

Trevor

[Guest guest]

Hi Trevor,

 

Pathological dampness is always a branch symptom unless it comes in

from outside. Because of this, when there is damp swelling it is

important to establish the root. In your patient's case, since the

swelling followed trauma and it is one sided, the root is blood

stasis. Most of us were not taught that blood stasis is a cause of

pathological dampness but it is and knowing this is very useful.

Steven Clavey talks about it in Fluid Physiology and Pathology. You

didn't give us any information to address her background signs and

symptoms but - assuming this is the only thing she has going on (a

big assumption), you would need to vitalize blood (as you said, in

the Luo) and drain dampness. Since the dampness is located in the

superficial flesh, using peels is the best to target this. Wu Pi

Tang combined with Dang Gui, Chuan Xiong, Mo Yao, Ru Xiang, Chi Shao

type herbs plus Yi Mu Cao and Ze Lan are both indicated form damp

steming from blood stasis. Of course, to be safe you would need to

take this strategy in the context of your constitutional

differentiation of signs and symptoms and not just focus on this one

symptom.

 

If the root of the dampness was Spleen Qi, Spleen Yang or Kidney Yang

deficiency or if it came from the outside, it would not be one

sided. I also don't think it is phlegm since it is just water and

not thickened. San Miao Tang is for dampheat in the lower warmer.

If her tongue is pale, Gui Zhi would be very good to stimulate the

fluid transformation.

 

 

Hope this helps,

 

Sharon

 

 

 

Hi all,

I am currious to see if anyone has any advice on the treatment of

lymphadema in one leg.

I have a 50 year old female patient who suffered a pitch fork in the

foot accident 35 years

ago and has had swelling in her leg ever since. The WM was poor lymph

drainage due to

damage of the lymph nodes in her foot. Recently in the past ten days

her swelling has

increased dramatically and now has a hard time walking. She is a

muscian anand has just

recently returned from a long tour riding in cramped conditions on a

school bus, so

obviously the lack of physical movement has restrcited the flow of

the lymph.

I treated her with a deep Tui Na massage and used a few acupuncture

needles to help

stimulate drainage. I am now preparing a herbal formula and wandered

what people

thought. My thinking was that there is definetly dampness, phlegm,

and possibly blood

stasis due to the old injury that started the condition. For the

formula I have started with a

base of san miao san and have worked from there.

Cang Zhu

Yi Yi Ren

Niu Xi

Huang Lian ( I used this herb instead of huang Bai because her

toungue tip had a canker

sore and was obviously red. It seems the road trip left her agitated.

I wanted to drain heart

fire, as well as fight any infection in her limb)

then I added:

 

Gui Zhi (network vessels)

Ru Xiang (network vessels and as well think about blood stasis from a

chronic conditon,

even though this extra swelling was relatively new)

Shen Qu (to protect the stomach from the adverse effects of the Ru

Xiang)

Bai Zhu

Ze Xie

Ban Xia

Chen Pi

Du Hou

Gan Cao

 

I would love feed back and any discusion on this type of edema (which

BTW is only slightly

pitting). I can't find much literature on the treatment of one sided

edema in any textbooks

in chinese medicine, so I have been left somewhat to my own thinking.

Thanks

Trevor

 

Sharon Weizenbaum

86 Henry Street

Amherst, MA 01002

413-549-4021

sweiz

www.whitepinehealingarts.com