Windstroke — flaccid syndrome
StarEssentials of Chinese Acupuncture (Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing Colleges of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1980) — the standard prescriptions of the Chinese colleges.
Points
-
Conception Vessel point below the navel; rescues collapsing yang and qi
Moxibustion.
- Pregnancy: contraindicated
-
Conception Vessel point below the navel; restores the root of vital function
Moxibustion.
- Pregnancy: contraindicated
-
Point in the navel; warmed to pull yang back from collapse
Moxibustion only, ideally continuous indirect moxa on salt.
- ⛔ Do not needle
Needling Safety
Cited hazards for these points. Tick what applies to the patient to see the cautions that follow from it.
-
CV8 Shenque
-
⛔ Not to be needled. World Health Organization 1999, Section II §5.1 (Areas not to be punctured), p. 24
-
Treatment Principle
Bring back the collapsing yang by warming Conception Vessel points with moxibustion.
Indications
Method
Moxibustion on all three points; continuous moxa on salt at the navel is recommended. No needling is given.
⚠ Cautions
An acute medical emergency: call emergency services and arrange hospital care first; acupuncture is at most an adjunct and must never delay it. The flaccid form is circulatory collapse and needs resuscitation and hospital care. CV8 is never needled. Heavy moxibustion below the navel (CV4, CV6) is contraindicated in pregnancy. Protect the skin from burns in an unconscious patient who cannot react to heat.
About
The textbook's prescription for the flaccid, or abandoned, form of severe windstroke, in which yang is collapsing: the patient lies limp and sweating with closed eyes, open mouth and a feeble pulse.
Rationale
All three points are on the Conception Vessel around and below the navel and are treated by the book as the core emergency points for restoring vital function. Warming them, especially with salt moxa at CV8, is meant to pull yang back from collapse rather than to drain anything.
Clinical Notes
The book's table sets the two severe forms side by side: open versus closed eyes, clenched jaw versus slack mouth, clenched versus open hands, dry versus sweating skin, retention versus incontinence, and a forceful versus a feeble pulse. When the picture is mixed, it uses GV26 with ST36 rather than bleeding the wells.
Sources
- Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, et al. Essentials of Chinese Acupuncture. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1980. Chapter III, Windstroke, p. 331–335.
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