A Case Report of Stroke Patient With Drooling Improved by Electro-acupuncture Therapy

뇌 손상 환자의 침 흘림에 대한 전침 적용 1례

Drooling causes inconvenience and develops complications, therefore it can be very stressful to patients and caregivers. Drooling caused by neurological disabilities appears to be the consequence of dysfunction in the coordination of the swallowing mechanism. However, there is no explanation about drooling by brain injury in oriental medicine literature. This is the case report about a stroke patient with drooling improved by electro-acupuncture therapy. The patient already applied scopolamine patch, and improved drooling before admission. However, caregiver concerned about side effects, so we stopped using scopolamine patch and applied electro-acupuncture for drooling treatment. The patient was treated by 4 acupuncture points on either side of Yeomcheon(CV 23), and Jichang(ST 4), Hyeopgeo(ST 6) with mixed low frequency electro stimulation. Although we stopped using scopolamine patch, drooling maintained improved state without a change, futhermore after 16 days later, drooling had disappeared until the patient discharged. This result showed electro-acupuncture is useful method to improve drooling caused by brain injury.