Dysentery

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Textbook Prescriptions Digestive

Essentials of Chinese Acupuncture (Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing Colleges of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1980) — the standard prescriptions of the Chinese colleges.

Points

ST25 Tianshu bilateral

Front-Mu of the Large Intestine; relieves stagnation in the bowel
ST37 Shangjuxu bilateral

Lower He-Sea of the Large Intestine; the book cites the Neijing rule of He-Sea points for fu-organ disease
LI4 Hegu bilateral

Yuan-Source of the Large Intestine; assists in clearing the intestines
- Pregnancy: contraindicated

Needling Safety

Cited hazards for these points. Tick what applies to the patient to see the cautions that follow from it.

Treatment Principle

Clear stagnation from the intestines and restore their transporting function.

Indications

Damp-heat: abdominal pain, tenesmus, red and white (or mainly red) mucus in the stool, possibly high fever, nausea and vomiting; yellow sticky coating, rolling rapid pulseCold-damp: scanty stools with mainly white mucus, dislike of cold, fullness of chest and epigastrium, lingering abdominal pain, bland taste, no thirst; white sticky coating, deep slow pulseChronic: prolonged or recurrent dysentery with tiredness, sallow face, chilliness, poor appetite; deep thready pulse

Method

Damp-heat: reducing method. Cold-damp: needling with moxibustion. Chronic: a mix of reinforcing and reducing with moxibustion, applied frequently.

⚠ Cautions

Dysentery is an infectious disease (bacillary or amoebic) that needs medical diagnosis and usually antimicrobial treatment; watch for dehydration, high fever and blood loss, and take hygiene precautions. LI4 is contraindicated in pregnancy.

About

The colleges' base prescription for dysentery, using points of the large intestine to move stagnation, with additions for damp-heat, cold-damp and chronic cases.

Rationale

Following the classical guidance that He-Sea points treat the fu organs, ST37, the lower He-Sea of the large intestine, is the core point. ST25 acts locally as the Front-Mu and LI4 works on the channel of the organ, and together they free the stagnation in the bowel that produces tenesmus and pain.

Clinical Notes

Additions: damp-heat, LI11, ST44 and SP9 with reducing method; cold-damp, CV12 and CV6 with moxibustion to warm the middle, and SP6 to strengthen the spleen and resolve damp; chronic, BL20, BL21, CV12 and ST36 with mixed technique and repeated moxibustion. For tenesmus add BL29; for rectal prolapse add GV20. The book includes acute and chronic bacillary and amoebic dysentery here.

Sources

Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, et al. Essentials of Chinese Acupuncture. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1980. Chapter III, Dysentery, p. 359–360.

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