A bibliographic study on the external therapy of Acute Mastitis(乳癰Yu-ong)

유선염(乳腺炎) 의 한방(韓方) 외치법(外治法)에 대한 문헌적고찰(文獻的考察)

Acute Mastitis(急性乳腺炎=乳癰) is an acute suppurative disease appearing in the breast. It is mostly caused by galactostasis, the stagnation of liver-qi(肝鬱) and stomach-heat(胃熱). It is mostly found in breast feeding women, mostly in primiparae. It usually appears in the third and the fourth weeks of postpartum. At the beginning in the chest there appear induration, distending pain, galactostasis, inversion to cold with fever followed by the enlargement of the masses, burning red, megalgia, not subduing of chills and fever, the accumulation of it to form pus. In the early phase it is advisable to follow the therapeutic principles of soothing the liver and clearing away heat, promoting lactation and subduing swelling. After the formation of pus it is advisable to cut radially and drain the pus. External Therapy(外治法) generally refers to all the methods to treat various diseases and symptoms with application of drugs and manipulation or together with proper instruments on the body surface except the method of taking medicine orally Acute Mastitis has been regarded as surgery or the method of taking medicine orally But, based on many bibliographies, acute mastitis was treated by external therapy. Thus through the historical bibliographic studies of external therapy about acute mastitis, this study was made to help the expanding of the methods of treating acute mastitis.