Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 26, 2022; 10(36): 13356-13363
Published online Dec 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i36.13356
Acute moderate to severe ulcerative colitis treated by traditional Chinese medicine: A case report
Bin Wu
Bin Wu, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou 310005, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Wu B is the only author.
Supported by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China, No. LQ20H270010.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bin Wu, MD, Attending Doctor, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, No. 219 Moganshan Road, Hangzhou 310005, Zhejiang Province, China. 20105004@zcmu.edu.cn
Received: October 19, 2022
Peer-review started: October 19, 2022
First decision: November 4, 2022
Revised: November 15, 2022
Accepted: December 8, 2022
Article in press: December 8, 2022
Published online: December 26, 2022
Processing time: 68 Days and 11.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Ulcerative colitis (UC), also known as chronic nonspecific UC, is an inflammatory bowel disease characterized by diffuse colonic mucosal inflammation. The incidence and prevalence of UC have risen markedly, and the disease seriously affects the quality of life of patients and imposes a great burden on the world health care infrastructure and economy.

CASE SUMMARY

Case I describes a 34-year-old female who came to see a doctor because of repeated abdominal pain, diarrhoea and purulent blood for 2 mo. This patient had UC with an initial onset, an active stage and a wide range of lesions. After the poor effect of sulfasalazine and mesalazine, the patient's condition gradually deteriorated, her abdominal pain and bloody stools continued, and anemia occurred. She began treatment with the Chinese medicine Guizhi Dahuang decoction, which was taken orally twice a day, 200 mL each time. After 6 mo of treatment, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, bloody stool and other symptoms disappeared. No abnormality was found by repeat electronic enteroscopye, and the anemia was corrected. The patient's condition did not recur after nearly 4 years of follow-up.

CONCLUSION

A series of symptoms in this UC patient significantly improved with the administration of traditional Chinese medicine.

Keywords: Traditional Chinese medicine; Ulcerative colitis; Complementary and alternative therapy; Gastroenterology; Clinical efficacy; Case report

Core Tip: We present a 34-year-old female with acute moderate to severe ulcerative colitis (UC) that lasted for 2 mo. Treatment with mesalazine failed. After treatment with Guizhi Dahuang decoction, her symptoms were relieved. At reexamination, there was no erosion, bleeding, ulcers or new organisms in the colonic mucosa. This result suggested that Guizhi Dahuang decoction might be an effective treatment method for patients with UC.