A 26-year-old woman who was diagnosed with mild SLE came to our hospital with the complaints about cutaneous eruptions on her face, head and back, as well as alopecia. We treated her with Sho-saiko-to-go-Oren-gedoku-to-ka-Yokuinin. After that, skin symptoms such as erythema, alopecia and photosensitivity disappeared, and an antinuclear antibody, which had shown 640 times at the first medical examination, became negative about two years later. In addition, the skin symptoms did not relapse and the antinuclear antibody rose very little even though the patient received no further medication for the next year. Our reseach found no other case reports of SLE whose antinuclear antibodies became negative only by Kampo treatment and who was treated with Sho-saiko-to-go-Oren-gedoku-to or its modified formulations.
Overall, it seemed to be an interesting case, and it suggests that Kampo medicine may be valuable in treating some cases of mild SLE, and may make steroid treatments unnecessary in the early stages of SLE before the diagnosis has been established.