Bell's facial paralysis
Bell's facial
paralysis is one of the commonest peripheral facial paralyses which occurs suddenly
and mostly after exposure to cold wind. 85-90% of the patients get recovered spontaneously.
If falls into the category of "zhen zhong feng" (true wind-stroke) in
TCM.
Main Points of Diagnosis
1. It often occurs in autumn and winter
or between spring and summer, mostly in the middle-aged. The disease usually attacks
one side of the face.
2. The attack comes all of a sudden. At the beginning
the patient feels numb at one side of the face, pain around the ear and tenderness
in the mastoidale region. The mouth becomes wry, the nasolabial groove no longer
seen and the facio-buccal region relaxed and strengthless. It is impossible to
have the cheeks blown up. The eyeballs are still exposed when the eyes are shut.
It is difficult to frown and speak. Salivation comes down from the corners of
the mouth. The sense of taste is lost but the sense of hearing is hypersensitive.
Differentiation and Treatment of Common Syndromes
1. Internal Treatment.
1) The Early Stage
Main Symptoms and Signs: The onset is sudden and the
duration is short. The mouth and eyes become wry. The eyeballs can balls can always
be seen as the eyes can not be closed entirely. There is difficulty in frowning.
The accompanying symptoms and signs are headache, discomfort or low fever, red
tongue with thin and white fur, and taut and thready pulse.
Therapeutic Principle:
Dispelling pathogenic wind and removing obstruction from the channels.
Recipe:
Yang-Clearing Decoction with additional ingredients (yang here means the upper
regions of the human body, especially the face)
astragalus root
Chinese
angelica root
tribulus fruit
cimicifuga rhizome
safflower
bark of
Chinese corktree
cinnamon twig
sappan wood
ledebouriella root
cicada
slough
pueraria root
licorice root
All the above ingredients are to be
decocted in water for oral administration.
2) Late Stage.
Main Symptoms
and Signs: The course of the disease is protracted. The mouth and the eyes become
wry. No wrinkles can be seen on the forehead. The patient has reddish tongue with
petechiae on it, thin and white fur, and thready and feeble pulse.
Therapeutic
Principle: Promoting qi flow and blood circulation, removing phlegm and clearing
away obstruction from the channels.
Recipe: Powder for Treating Wry-mouth,
compounded with Decoction Invigorating Yang for Recuperation
giant typhonium
tuber
scorpion
batryticated silkworm
peach kernel
safflower
earthworm
astragalus
root
tip of Chinese angelica root
ligusticum root
red peony root
All
the above ingredients are to be decocted in water for oral administration.
For
those running low fever, add 30 grams of isatis root and 30 grams of honeysuckle
flower. For those with restlessness (due to deficiency) and palpitation, add 18
grams of prepared rehmannia root and 18 grams of prepared fleece-flower root.
for those who feel fullness and suffocation in the chest and stomach and who are
fat and have much sputum, add 6 grams of arisaema with bile and 9 grams of pinellia
tuber.
2. External Treatment
1) Apply adhesive plaster on the acupoints:
Dust 0.5-1 grams of nux-vomica seed powder onto a plaster and then apply the plaster
on the acupoints of Taiyang (Extra 2), Xiaguan (St 7) and Jiache (St 6) of the
affected side (more applicable to the regions with tenderness). Change the plaster
every 3 days. If blisters appear on the administered part, extract its fluid after
disinfection. Then the blisters will get cured spontaneously.
2) Smear the
blood of eel onto the affected region: Smear fresh blood of eel onto the buccal
skin of the affected side, and hold the mouth angle of the affected side with
a metal hook so as to help cure the facial paralysis. This is to be done once
a day.
3) Do local massage on the affected region, several times a day.
4)
Acupuncture therapy for this trouble can get a better result.
By
Contact
Address:
Dr. Ming's TCM Medical Center,
Hua Xi Xiao Yuan, Hutian Developing
Area,
Huaihua city, Hunan province
China