| Thyroid disease is a commonly seen endocrine disease in the clinical setting, with the ratio in women far greater than in men. Treatment using anti-thyroid drugs, radioiodine therapy, and surgical excision all have their side effects. For instance, surgery has the potential to induce a hypothyroid condition requiring administration of thyroxine for the duration of life and some patients are either allergic to orally administered drugs or the drugs are simply ineffective in controlling the disease. These treatment complications make it is necessary to find an effective method of reducing side effects, increasing effectiveness, and improving patients' quality of life. Striving to these ends, this paper presents 34 cases of women patients whom developed hypothyroidism following thyroid surgery from January 1998 to December 2005.All case studies were subject to both Western medical diagnostic examination and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pattern identification and diagnostic interpretation. Oral administration of thyroxine 50～100μg/day; and TCM treatment principles of assisting yang, warming the kidney, and promoting qi, using the formulas of Si Ni Tang and Gan Cao Tang and adding other herbs one preparation/day. The Chinese-Western integration medicine approach consisted of using both TCM and Western medicine treatment modalities simultaneously. Treatment using the three approaches was carried out over a 3～5 month period and follow-up of these cases was conducted over a 2～6 year period. Statistical data was conducted on the effectiveness, showing that the Western medicine and TCM treatment cure rates were 25％and 40％, respectively, with P＞0.05, inadequate effectiveness with no statistical significance; the Chinese-Western integrated medicine treatment cure rate was 88％, dramatically higher than either the Western medicine or TCM treatments alone, with P＜0.01, clearly of statistical significance.This study clinically proves that Chinese-Western integrated medicine treatment of hypothyroidism following thyroid surgery is more effective than using either Western medicine or TCM treatment alone. In addition, analysis of the short-term, mid-term, and long-term results and recurrence rates using these three treatment approaches is also presented.Conclusion: Over a two-year short-term treatment period, results of using Western medicine treatment and Chinese-Western integrated medicine treatment are similar with few recurrences, while the TCM treatment shows less effective results. Over the 2～5 year mid-term period, the Chinese-Western integrated medicine treatment approach is most effective recording the fewest recurrences, the TCM treatment is second highest, and the Western medicine recurrence rate is the greatest. For the 5 year and beyond long-term period, the TCM and the Chinese-Western integrated medicine effectiveness is essentially the identical, revealing that the effectiveness of Western medicine treatment clearly declines in the long-term. These results reveal that TCM treatment provides more effective long-term treatment. Chinese medicinal herbs have the capacity to regulate the function of the body's organs, harmonize yin and yang, and promote the smooth flow of qi and blood, thus reducing recurrence rates. This study conclusively shows that the use of Chinese medical herbs in the treatment of hypothyroidism has advantageous clinical efficacy. Used together, TCM and Western medicine treatments compliment each other and clearly improve effectiveness, offering the best approach for treating hypothyroidism.This article discusses from the viewpoint of both Chinese and Western medication and treatment methodologies that nearly all women with the abnormal thyroid function illness caused irregular menstrual cycles after the above discussed treatment. The irregular menstrual cycles condition normalized rate is proportional to the seriousness of the disease.One may conclude that this study should prompt women to fully investigate there personal thyroid functioning... |
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