Clinical observation of liver and gall stones treated with qigong

There were only a few reports concerning with qigong treatment of lithiasis in recent years. But with the development of ultrasonoscopic methods, the detection rate of this common disease is rising. As there is an obvious effect with Western and Chinese pharmacotherapy, we gave systematical qigong treatment to 15 cases who did not respond to Chinese and Western pharmacotherapy. Each case was treated with qigong for 2-3 courses. The average number of treatments was 20-25 times. Different effects were found after treatment.

According to a common criterion to determine the effects, among the 15 cases, 7 cases were cured (47.6%), the number of effective cases was 6 (40.0%), and that of non effective cases was 2 (13.4%), the total effective rate being 86.6%.

Analysis:
1. Site:
(l) Of 4 cases of hepatolithiasis, 3 were cured, and the number of effective cases was 1. (2) The 2 cases of choledocholithiasis both were cured. (3) Of 9 cases of cholecystolithiasis, 2 were cured, the number of effective cases was 5 , and that of non effective cases was 2. The results showed that the therapeutic effect in patients with cholecystolithiasis was not so good as that in patients with hepatolithiasis or choledocholithiasis.

2. Number and size of stones:
The number of cured, effective and non-effective cases in patients with stones larger than 1.0cm in diameter was 4, 2 and 1 respectively, whereas that in patients with stones smaller than 1.0cm in diameter was 3, 4 and 1 respectively. So when the diameter of the stone is larger than 1.0cm, the effective rate is smaller.
3. Age According to the age the patients were divided into 3 groups i.e. under 30, 30-50 and 50-60. The number of cured, effective and non-effective cases were 3:0:0 in the first group, 2:4:1 in the second group, and 2:2:1 in the third group. This suggests that the curative rate is higher in young patients than in old patients, and that it is concerned with body sensitivity.

The results of the observation showed that the function of the emitted qi and qigong may be anti-inflammatory, spasmolysis, anti-stone and stone-dispelling without side-effects. This is a new way of combining Western with traditional Chinese medicine and is worthy of further research.