The Effect of a Cooperative System of Oriental and Western Medicine in the Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis

Background and Purpose : Allergic rhinitis is a well-known, relatively controllable chronic disease. Although a number of methods for treating allergic rhinitis have been tried, many patients have not been satisfied with their treatment. Therefore, this study tried to evaluate the effect of a cooperative system of Oriental and Western medicine and to develop a new diagnosis protocol for treatment of allergic rhinitis. Methods : We measured improvement rate and acoustic rhinometry after the allergeninduction test and performed a filter paper test as a nonspecific hypersensitivity test with 60 patients who are allergic to house dust mite. Patients were divided into two groups, one treated with Western medicine only and one treated with both Western and Oriental herbal medicine. For the group with Western medicine only, antihistamine for one week and local steroid medicine for two weeks were prescribed. For the group with combined medicine, Oriental herbal medicine was prescribed according to the patient s constitution, along with Western medicine. After all treatments, the above tests were re-performed and the improvement rate was compared. Results and Conclusion : We observed better results in the group treated with both Western and Oriental herbal medicines, comparing improvement rate and the alteration of total nasal volume through acoustic rhinometry after the allergen induction test. In the filter paper test, there was no significant difference between the two groups. In conclusion, we showed the additive effect of Oriental herbal medicine without any severe side effects compared with treatment with Western medicine only. In this study, we set only two patient groups, but further study is required to create various experimental groups and compare among them. We suggest that it might enhance understanding of the improved effect of Oriental herbal medicine in the therapy of allergic rhinitis.