Keywords: Chinese medicine, acupuncture, warm needle, post cervical cancer radical surgery bladder numbness
Radical hysterectomy for cervical cancer patients can damage the nerves associated with the bladder. Therefore, post-operative bladder numbness and urinary retention is not uncommon in these women. Xie Ying published an article titled, "A Clinical Audit of the Treatment of 136 Cases of Post Cervical Cancer Radical Surgery Bladder Numbness with Warm Needle Moxibustion," in issue #4, 2002 of Zhong Yi Za Zhi (Journal of Chinese Medicine) on page 267. A precis of this article appears below.
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Cohort description: One hundred thirty-six women with post-operative cervical cancer bladder numbness were divided into three groups. The treatment group was comprised of 49 women aged 24-69 years with an average age of 31.51 years. Twenty-five of the women had stage Ia cervical cancer, 16 had IIa, and eight had IIb stage cervical cancer. The acupuncture comparison group was comprised of 46 women, 25-66 years of age, with an average age of 34.46 years. Twenty-six of these women had stage Ia cervical cancer, 14 had Ib, and six had IIb. The other 41 women were assigned to the corpus vesicae procedure comparison group. This group was 23-68 years of age, with an average age of 32 years. Twenty-five of these women had stage Ia cervical cancer, 10 had IIa, and six had Iib. Therefore, there was no significant statistical differences between these three groups in terms of age or stage of disease.
Treatment method: The members of the treatment group were first needled at Guan Yuan (CV 4), Zhong Ji (CV 3), and Qi Hai (CV 6) with heads of the needles pointing to the perineum and then manipulated until a numb, distended feeling was propagated to that area. Then Zu San Li (St 36), San Yin Jiao (Sp 6), and Yin Ling Quan (Sp 9) were needled with supplementing hand technique. All these needles were retained for 30 minutes. During this time, two 2cm sections of moxa rolls were burned on each of the handles of these needles. This treatment was done once per day.
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The members of the acupuncture comparison group were needled at the same points but no moxibustion was burned. The needles were retained for 30 minutes each time, once per day.
The members of the corpus vesica procedure comparison group were urged to empty their bladders. Then an intravenous drip of 300-500ml of saline solution was administered. When the patient felt like her bladder was full, it was emptied by a catheter and another 500ml of saline solution was administered by intravenous drip. Again she emptied her bladder by catheter. This was done two times per day.
All three groups were treated for one week after which treatment outcomes were tabulated.
Treatment outcomes: Cure was defined as the ability to void the bladder by onself with less than 50ml residual urine. Improvement was defined as ability to void the urine on one's own but residual urine equal to or more than 50ml. No effect meant that one was still not able to empty one's bladder by herself and/or there was residual urine equal to or more than 100ml. Based on these criteria, 36 women in the treatment group were judged cured, 10 were improved, and three got no effect, for a total amelioration rate of 93.88%. In the acupuncture comparison group, 20 women were cured, 17 improved, and nine got no effect, for a total amelioration rate of 80.43%. In the corpus vesicae procedure comparison group, 13 women were cured, 12 improved, and 16 got no effect, for a total amelioration rate of only 60.98%. In the treatment group, the smallest number of treatment before seeing an effect was one and the greatest was seven, with an average of three treatments. Hence the warm needle treatment was markedly more effective than either acupuncture alone or the corpus vesicae procedure.
Translator's comments: While this article does not discuss a treatment specifically for cancer, in many states acupuncturists are not, strictly speaking, legally allowed to treat cancer. Acupuncturists in every state can, however, treat nausea, falling hair, fatigue, bladder numbness, or other common side effects of standard Western medical cancer treatments. Therefore, I chose this article to illustrate the efficacy of using acumoxa therapy to treat such side effects.
abstracted & translated by Honora Lee Wolfe, Dipl. Ac., Lic. Ac., FNAAOM c/o Blue Poppy Press * 5441 Western Ave. #2 * Boulder, Colorado 80301 USA www.bluepoppy.com
COPYRIGHT 2004 The Townsend Letter Group
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