Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurveda has become a complementary and alternative medicine worldwide and has gradually been adopted to treat chronic ulcers.
Elderly patients and patients with various internal systemic diseases commonly have poor nutritional status and weak immunity. As recovery of wound can be affected by various factors, these patients might not achieve curative effects after regular treatment of their wounds. Many wounds could also be accompanied by infection, gangrene, and pyogenic osteomyelitis.
In TCM, it is believed that the pathogenesis of chronic ulcer is due to a deficiency of qi and blood, caused by prolonged disease course for healing of the skin wound. External therapy is one of the most characteristics and preponderant treatments of traditional Chinese medicine (Wu, M., Li .et al, 2018). A study conducted by Mingfen Wu, “Microbial Diversity of Chronic Wound and Successful Management of Traditional Chinese Medicine” studied wound samples from 35 patients and analyzed bacteria variation before and after traditional Chinese Medicine treatment by 16s rRNA sequencing. Patients with chronic ulcers achieved a positive effect after traditional chinese medicine treatment (skin-producing ointment).
Ayurvedic purification therapy called Panchakarma is used in treating multiple illness including wounds. Biopurifactory measures (panchakarma) of Ayurveda claims to provide better quality of life after treatment. One of the studies ‘Assessment of Quality of Life in Patients With Skin Disorders Undergoing Ayurvedic Panchakarma (Bio purification) as Management” by H. Deshpande was conducted to provide evidence in patients with skin disorders, undergoing Ayurvedic treatment. Sixty patients with skin disorder, who underwent purification therapies like therapeutic emesis and therapeutic purgation, were randomly placed in 2 groups to assess quality of life. Quality of life assessment was done with the help of Skindex-29 among the patients before and after Ayurvedic purification therapy. A statistically significant improvement in the quality of life domains-emotions, functioning, and symptoms-after the Ayurvedic management was observed with P value <.001. Study concludes that there is improvement in quality of life among patients with skin disease after undergoing Ayurveda purification therapies.
References:
Deshpande, H., S., Kavita, M. B., Tripathy, T. B., & Chaturvedi, A. (2015). Assessment of Quality of Life in Patients With Skin Disorders Undergoing Ayurvedic Panchakarma (Biopurification) as Management. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine,21(3), 215-220. doi:10.1177/2156587215615026
Wu, M., Li, Y., Guo, D., Kui, G., Li, B., Deng, Y., & Li, F. (2018). Microbial Diversity of Chronic Wound and Successful Management of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine,2018, 1-13. doi:10.1155/2018/9463295