Abstract
Objective : The purpose of this study is to expand our treatment field in oriental dermatology by understanding the patterns of outpatients who had visited the oriental hospitals located in Gangwon province. Methods : We studied 510 outpatients out of 2240 people from Sangji University Oriental Hospital(SUOH) and 333 outpatients out of 2030 people from Chuncheon Oriental Hospital(COH) from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2009. We categorized the results by gender, age, disease types, residences, months and number of visiting times. Results : The results were as follows 1. Comparing the number of outpatients that had visited the hospital by gender in SUOH shows that female's visiting rate is 57% and male is 43%. In COH shows that female's visiting rate is 54% and male is 46%. 2. Most frequent visiting age group were 21-30 year-old group(30%) in SUOH and 11-20 year-old group(23%) in COH. 3. In regard to the monthly visiting period, January(13%) is the highest in SUOH and July(10%) is the highest in COH. 4. Regional distributions of the outpatients that had visited SUOH and COH show Wonju(73%) and Chuncheon(74%). 5. In terms of treatment methods, SUOH showed the external application(65%), herb medication(54%), and acupuncture(52%) while COH showed acupuncture(74%), the external application(69%), and herb medication(66%). 6. Visiting frequency of outpatients in SUOH showed that 1 time visiting cases were 51%. In COH case, 1 time visiting cases were 19%. 7. The most prevalent diseases were urticaria(15%), eczema(14%) acne(12%), and seborrheic dermatitis(11%) in SUOH and atopic dermatitis(27%), urticaria(20%), acne(16%), and psoriasis(10%) in COH. 8. Most outpatients had visited SUOH for 1 time(51%) and COH for over 11 times(32%) with the major 16 diseases. Conclusions : This study suggests that outpatients who had visited the department of oriental dermatology preferred to get a treatment for urticaria, eczema, atopic dermatitis and acne. Considering this aspect, it needs to improve current research to expand the oriental medical treatments further in dermatological field.