Windstroke — tense syndrome
StarEssentials of Chinese Acupuncture (Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing Colleges of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1980) — the standard prescriptions of the Chinese colleges.
Points
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Governing Vessel point at the philtrum; regulates Du qi to restore consciousness
Reducing method.
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Governing Vessel point at the vertex; works with GV26 to revive the patient
Reducing method.
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Jing-Well of the Lung; one of the twelve hand wells, bled to clear heat from the upper body
Pricked to bleed.
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Jing-Well of the Heart; one of the twelve hand wells, bled to clear heat from the upper body
Pricked to bleed.
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Jing-Well of the Pericardium; one of the twelve hand wells, bled to clear heat from the upper body
Pricked to bleed.
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Jing-Well of the Large Intestine; one of the twelve hand wells, bled to clear heat from the upper body
Pricked to bleed.
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Jing-Well of the San Jiao; one of the twelve hand wells, bled to clear heat from the upper body
Pricked to bleed.
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Jing-Well of the Small Intestine; one of the twelve hand wells, bled to clear heat from the upper body
Pricked to bleed.
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Jing-Well of the Kidney on the sole; leads heat downward, treating the top from below
Reducing method.
Needling Safety
Cited hazards for these points. Tick what applies to the patient to see the cautions that follow from it.
Treatment Principle
Revive the patient by reducing Governing Vessel points and bleeding the Jing-Well points so that heat and stirring wind subside.
Indications
Method
Reducing method on the Governing Vessel points and KI1; the Jing-Well points of all ten fingers (twelve points) are pricked to let blood.
⚠ Cautions
An acute medical emergency: call emergency services and arrange hospital care first; acupuncture is at most an adjunct and must never delay it. Windstroke corresponds to stroke and intracranial haemorrhage, where time to imaging and thrombolysis or neurosurgical care decides the outcome. Use sterile single-use lancets for bleeding and take extra care if the patient is anticoagulated. LI4, if added for the jaw, is contraindicated in pregnancy. GV15 and CV23, if added, lie over the medulla and the airway: needle shallowly and never deeply or upward at GV15.
About
The textbook's first-aid prescription for the tense, or closed, form of severe windstroke, in which the zang-fu are struck and the patient collapses with every sign of excess: clenched jaw and fists, red face, no sweating and retained urine and stool.
Rationale
GV26 and GV20 act through the Governing Vessel to bring the patient round. Letting blood from the twelve wells of the hands drains heat from the upper body so that internally generated wind can settle, and KI1 on the sole pulls that heat down — the book's example of choosing a low point for a disorder above.
Clinical Notes
Once the crisis has passed the book adds points by symptom: for a locked jaw, ST6, ST7 and LI4 (local and distal points along the Stomach and Large Intestine channels that cross the cheek); for phlegm rattling in the throat, CV22 and ST40; for loss of speech with a stiff tongue, GV15 and CV23 locally with HT5, the Luo point of the Heart, since the tongue belongs to the heart. Where the tense and flaccid forms cannot be told apart, the book advises against bleeding the wells and uses only GV26 to revive the patient and ST36 to steady vital function. The book equates windstroke with cerebrovascular accidents — haemorrhage, thrombosis, embolism and subarachnoid haemorrhage.
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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