• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.130-138
• /
• 2018

Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system characterized by optic neuritis and longitudinally extensive myelitis. Painful tonic spasm is a common complication of NMO, but there have been no reports about it in Korean medicine studies. In this case, we treated a 53-year-old woman diagnosed with NMO with paraplegia, painful tonic spasm, and decreased visual acuity using Korean medicine treatment, including acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping, and moxibustion. We measured changes in clinical symptoms using the manual muscle testing (MMT), the numeric rating scale (NRS), the modified Barthel Index (MBI), and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). After treatment, clinical symptoms were improved. The results indicate that Korean medicine treatment may be effective in the treatment of an NMO patient with paraplegia and painful tonic spasm.