Pakmei
01-12-2004, 05:39 AM
Hi Everyone,
Recently I had a person come to me in the clinic that I work at, asking if I could do something for his finger and hand.
Apparently this person had cut his finger quite deeply about 3 - 4 weeks ago, which wasn't seeming to heal properly.
His finger was hot to the touch, swollen with no / very restricted movement. On the dorsal aspect of the phlange, the skin pigmentation was beginning to go a kinda bluey black colour with a red line extending proximally up onto the dorsum of the hand.
I immediately said that I wasn't even going to attempt to treat it, as I believed that his wound has obviously become infected (however I was more concerned with the fact that his finger beginning to turn blue black from the blood stagnation).
I explained it would be in his interest to seek medical help at the hospital as the infection might be serious.
Well, I had a phone call from the guy on Sunday. Apparently the hospital admitted him for a couple of days for observation and pumped him full of antibiotics.
Basically my question is:
Was his wound becoming gangrenous? Is that what I was seeing from the blue black pigmentation of the skin on his finger.
How would TCM go about treating Gangrene? Would bleeding the affected finger help at all? Or would herbs be the better choice of treatment?
Recently I had a person come to me in the clinic that I work at, asking if I could do something for his finger and hand.
Apparently this person had cut his finger quite deeply about 3 - 4 weeks ago, which wasn't seeming to heal properly.
His finger was hot to the touch, swollen with no / very restricted movement. On the dorsal aspect of the phlange, the skin pigmentation was beginning to go a kinda bluey black colour with a red line extending proximally up onto the dorsum of the hand.
I immediately said that I wasn't even going to attempt to treat it, as I believed that his wound has obviously become infected (however I was more concerned with the fact that his finger beginning to turn blue black from the blood stagnation).
I explained it would be in his interest to seek medical help at the hospital as the infection might be serious.
Well, I had a phone call from the guy on Sunday. Apparently the hospital admitted him for a couple of days for observation and pumped him full of antibiotics.
Basically my question is:
Was his wound becoming gangrenous? Is that what I was seeing from the blue black pigmentation of the skin on his finger.
How would TCM go about treating Gangrene? Would bleeding the affected finger help at all? Or would herbs be the better choice of treatment?