Traditional Chinese medicine speeds-up humerus fracture healing: two case reports.

OBJECTIVE

Two cases illustrate the potential benefit of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatments on speeding-up proximal humeral fracture healing.

CLINICAL FEATURES

The cases include two patients with traumatic right proximal humerus closed fracture, one who fell down while standing on a chair and the other hit by a moped. Alternative treatments had been applied to restore humerus fracture. They were treated with the same modality by acupuncture on LI4, LI10, LI1, LI15, LI16 and SI9, with occasional electroacupuncture at LI4 and LI16, as well as concomitant herbal formula powder prescription named "Zhèng Gŭ Zĭ Jīn Dān". Within 2 months treatment, both patients seemed to have speed-up bone healing. The Constant Score increased from 9 to 42 and 36, before and after acupuncture therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

To our experience, the old patients' fracture had speed-up healing while under TCM treatments. This might hint that TCM treatments not only play a role in pain control, but also accelerate bone healing for certain fracture cases. Long-term follow-up and future experimental studies are warranted to examine the efficacy of TCM treatments for healing bone fracture in the elderly.

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