A 43-year-old diabetic man with a diabetic history of 8 years had been treated with insulin (Penfil 30R), 12μ in the morning and 4μ in the evening, for two months. The patient had only slight numbness and pain of the inferior limbs until **********, when he complained of intractable pain in the left back. The pain spread generally except for the face, bilateral palms and the pen-anal area in a few days. Although vitamin E, epalrestat, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and Gosha-jinki-gan were not effective, Mao-bushi-saishin-to was very effective for the intractable pain, Hochu-ekki-to was effective at reducing succeptibility to fatigue, but had no effect on the intractable pain. Diabetic control gradually became good with combination of Mao-bushi-saishin-to and Hochu-ekki-to in two months. HbAlc improved from 10.2 to 6.5% about two months after the beginning of treatment with Mao-bushi-saishin-to and Hochu-ekki-to. Therefore, insulin was discontinued five months later. In conclusion, combination of Mao-bushi-saishin-to and Hochu-ekki-to was useful for diabetic control in a patient with intractable pain.

A 50-year-old female developed severe dermatitis on her face during topical therapy with Shiun-ko and Taitsu-ko. The skin lesions almost disappeared in two weeks with oral steroid therapy and did not recur. Patch testing showed positive reactions to Shiun-ko, Taitsu-ko and Lithospermi radix, and beeswax, which were constituents of Shiun-ko and Taitsu-ko. The result suggests that the patient was sensitized with these topical medicaments and developed allergic contact dermatitis.