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JOURNAL OF CHINESE MEDICINE NUMBER 68 FEBRUARY 2002

Acute sore throat is a commonly seen disease in the

clinic, presenting as acute tonsillitis, acute laryn-

gitis, etc. It is caused by bacterial or viral infection

in the region of the throat and is characterised mainly by a

sore throat and difficulty in swallowing due to severe pain

in the throat. Some patients have fever and physical weak-ness. If treated too late or improperly, some patients may

develop chronic pharyngitis or secondary myocarditis,

nephritis, arthritis, etc. The author has adopted a method of

bloodletting therapy to treat 148 patients with acute sore

throat. The report is as follows.

1. Clinical dataOf 148 cases, 61 were male and 87 female, with an age

ranging from 2 to 65 years and an average age of 37 years.

The course of the disease was from 1 to 7 days, averaging 2.9

days. All of the patients had sore throat with severe pain onswallowing, and examination showed a hyperaemic and

swollen throat. 56 of the cases were accompanied by fever

and weakness, and white blood cell count was raised in 47.

2. Therapeutic methodPoint selection: Shaoshang LU-11, Shangyang L.I.-1.

Manipulation: After sterilising the selected points on both

hands, the points were rapidly pricked with a three-edged

needle which was immediately removed. After that,

swqueezing was applied to encourage bleeding of about 10

drops of stagnant blood from the punctured hole. Usually,

the first few drops of blood are dark, which shows excess ofpathogenic heat in the channel. The bleeding is encouraged

until the dark-red blood becomes light-red, which indicates

the excess of pathogenic heat has been discharged from the

channel. The treatment is given once daily, with one to three

treatments to a course.

3. Therapeutic results88 cases (59.5%) were fully recovered (disappearance of

clinical symptoms) after one treatment, 32 (21.6%) after two

treatments, and 17 (11.5%) after three treatments. 11 cases

(7.4%) were unchanged or worse after three treatments.

4. Case examples Gao, male, 8 years old, had a sore throat and severe pain

on swallowing, with fever, chills and weakness for 2 days.

His temperature was 38.9C. His throat was hyperaemic

and swollen and his tonsils were enlarged. His white blood

cell count was 10.5g/L. The patient had taken some antibi-

otics with no improvement. After a single bloodletting

treatment, the patient experienced relief of the sore throat

and his temperature was reduced to 37.1C by the evening.By the next day all of the clinical symptoms had disap-

peared and the white blood cell count was reduced to

normal (5.6g/L).

Wang, female, 39 years old, had suffered from a sore

throat for about one week, with difficulty in swallowing

due to severe pain in the throat, but without fever. An

examination found the throat to be reddened and swollen.

White blood cell count was normal. The patient had taken

many drugs and ultra-short wave treatment with no im-

provement. After a single treatment with bloodletting

therapy, she experienced immediate relief of the sore throat.After a further treatment, all symptoms had disappeared.

5. DiscussionTraditional Chinese medicine holds that acute, reddened,

swollen, sore throat and fever mainly result from heat

pathogen in the Lung channel of hand-taiyin and the Large

Intestine channel of hand-yangming burning upwards to

the throat. The treatment method is to reduce heat and

relieve pain by bloodletting (reducing method). Shaoshang

LU-11 and Shangyang L.I.-1 are the jing-well points of the

Lung and Large Intestine channels respectively. These points

can eliminate heat from the channel, whilst bloodlettingtherapy can reduce heat and dredge the channel. After three

treatments most patients have their symptoms relieved or

eliminated. Generally the white blood cell count is reduced

to a normal level within one or two days.

This method has the advantages of simple application

and no side effects. However it is not a desirable method for

treating chronic pharyngitis, suppurative tonsillitis or peri-

tonsillar abscess.

Zhang Hong M.D. works at The Acupuncture Department, General Air

Force Hospital, 30 Fuchen Road, Beijing 1000036, China.

TREATMENT OF ACUTE SORETHROAT WITH BLOODLETTING

THERAPYby Zhang Hong