Anaphylactic reactions
forum post
I am a practicing medical oncologist. I have been trained in TCM and medical acupuncture. Today I had an interesting experience in the clinic which I would like to share with my TCM colleagues.
An 89 year old man with multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia was given a second dose of intravenous immunoglobulin to treat his immune deficiency ( hypogammaglobulinemia). The first infusion was given in February without incident. He was premedicated only with Benadryl prior to today's infusion.
During the infusion he developed a full blown anaphylactic reaction. After administration of IV solu-Medrol his reaction was continuing. I found a high level of activity at the allergy point on his ear with a point finder. Electrostimulation of this point had no effect on his symptoms which , ultimately, required IV epinephrine to subdue.
I know that acute asthmatic attacks can be successfully treated with acupuncture. Has anyone had experience using auriculo or body acupuncture for anaphylactic reactions?
"anon9370" has published 3 other forum posts
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Comments / Discussions:
comment by "ChadD" (acupuncturist)
on May 2013
Personally I rarely use auricular acupuncture - especially not for strong acute symptoms. We use points very similar to that for acute asthma - in our system these would be the huatuo of T1 primarily - with T3 and T6, T7 for the lung/lymph, diaphragm, and the blood respectively. Generally these would be used on top of points more particular to the persons overall diagnosis - point combinations such as SP 3 w/ LU 9 would often be applicable - certainly so in a patient with leukemia.
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comment by "Richard_Nuttall"
on May 2013
In answer to Kate above, i think we could perhaps step back a little in this instance. We have an 89 year old man with multiple myeloma and chronic leukaemia, together with an immune deficiency.
While acupuncture is very effective in many cases I don't think it would be very helpful here as the gentleman is very sick with cancer and is quite old.
Some cases I see, for instance those folks with bad chest infection and coughing up green coloured phlegm, I send straight off to one of the local doctors for antibiotics. I think this is good practice. Drugs are way more effective in certain instance than acupuncture.
As a medical oncologist I'm sure that if Max were to treat this particular patient with moxa and acupuncture as a first-choice treatment, he wouldn't be an oncologist for long.
I think it's great that as a medically trained person Max has opened his mind to acupuncture because, as we all know, nobody has ALL the answers.
Not criticising, just saying :)
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