A Patient with Guillain-Barre Syndrome Treated with Combined Korean Medicine Treatments

Abstract

A patient diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) suffering from numbness in the toes and fingers, paralysis in the face, and back pain received intravenous immunoglobulin on December 28, 2019. Without an improvement in symptoms the patient was admitted to a Korean medicine hospital on January 1, 2020 to receive combined Korean medicine treatment including herbal medicine (Sipjeondaebo-tanggami and Hyangbujasunkipalmul-tang), acupuncture treatment, moxibustion, cupping treatment, and physical therapy. Treatment was administered over 51 days, of which 17 days were during hospitalization. Paralysis of facial muscle, and numbness in fingers and toes were evaluated using the Yanagihara score and numeric rating scale (NRS) score, respectively. Facial paralysis improved (21 to 40 based on Yanagihara score) and paresthesia of the hands and feet disappeared (NRS score 6–7 to NRS score 0). There were no side effects or sequela. This study suggested combined Korean medicine treatment may be effective for the treatment of GBS.

Keywords

• guillain-barre syndrome
• korean traditional medicine
• facial paralysis
• numbness
• paresthesia