Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Apr 26, 2020; 8(8): 1515-1524
Published online Apr 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i8.1515
Typical ulcerative colitis treated by herbs-partitioned moxibustion: A case report
Ya-Ying Lin, Ji-Meng Zhao, Ya-Jie Ji, Zhe Ma, Han-Dan Zheng, Yan Huang, Yun-Hua Cui, Yuan Lu, Huan-Gan Wu
Ya-Ying Lin, Ji-Meng Zhao, Zhe Ma, Han-Dan Zheng, Yan Huang, Yun-Hua Cui, Yuan Lu, Huan-Gan Wu, Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200030, China
Ya-Jie Ji, Surgery of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yueyang Hospital of Integrative Chinese and Western Medicine Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 200437, China
Author contributions: Wu HG, Zhao JM designed the study; Lin YY, Ma Z, Zheng HD acquired the data; Huang Y, Cui YH analyzed and interpreted the data; Lin YY and Zhao JM wrote the paper; Ji YJ and Lu Y critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.
Supported by Clinical Research Plan of Shanghai Hospital Development Center, No. 16 CR4023A; National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81574081 and No. 81674074; Shanghai Sailing Program, No. 17YF1417600; Chinese Medicine Inheritance and Innovation “100 Million” Talent Project (Qi Huang Scholar), No. 2018284; and the Project of Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, No. 201840096.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Huan-Gan Wu, PhD, Professor, Shanghai Research Institute of Acupuncture and Meridian, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 650 South Wanping Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai 200030, China. wuhuangan@126.com
Received: January 10, 2020
Peer-review started: January 10, 2020
First decision: February 29, 2020
Revised: March 27, 2020
Accepted: April 4, 2020
Article in press: April 4, 2020
Published online: April 26, 2020
Processing time: 103 Days and 5.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Ulcerative colitis (UC), also known as chronic nonspecific UC, is an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by diffuse colonic mucosal inflammation. The incidence and prevalence of UC have risen markedly, and the disease seriously affects the quality of life of patients, and poses a great burden on the world health care infrastructure and economy.

CASE SUMMARY

We present a 60-year-old man who had ulcerative colitis for more than 10 years, with recurrent abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea with mucopurulent stool. The treatments with sulfasalazine, mesalazine, and traditional Chinese medicine were not effective, and herbs-partitioned moxibustion (HPM) was then applied at “Zhongwan” (RN12), “Tianshu”(ST25), and “Qihai” (RN6) once a day for about 30 min, 3 times per week, for 6 mo.His main clinical symptoms of abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea with mucopurulent stool gradually improved, and the mucosa had nearly healed, as observed under endoscopy by the 6th mo. The patient’s condition was alleviated without relapsing during the subsequent 3-mo follow-up period. HPM showed a significant effect in the treatment of ulcerative colitis in this case, and the effect would help the patient to maintain remission for at least 3 mo.

CONCLUSION

A series of symptoms of this UC patient significantly improved with the treatment of HPM.

Keywords: Herbs-partitioned moxibustion; Ulcerative colitis; Complementary and alternative therapy; Gastroenterology; Clinical efficacy; Case report

Core tip: Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by diffuse colonic mucosal inflammation. Herbs-partitioned moxibustion (HPM) is a warm stimulation therapy based on traditional acupuncture theory. HPM was applied at “Zhongwan” (RN12), “Tianshu” (ST25), and “Qihai” (RN6) in an UC patient. The results showed that HPM can improve the clinical symptoms of this UC patient and the healing of colonic mucosa and help the patient maintain remission for at least 3 mo with no side effects. It can be a typical complementary and alternative therapy for UC.