The treatment of dry eye patients is based on the management of the main causes of the disease. When the process of disease continues regardless of various conventional treatments, punctal occlusion can be employed. We used collagen implant. 1-0 and 2-0 chromic catgut in 33 eyes of dry eye patients to evalute the efficacy of punctal occlusion using chromic catgut. Symptoms(grade 0 to 3) were improved from the first week and persistently decreased in symptom grade during four weeks' follow-up period. The superficial corneal punctate erosion(grade 0 to 3) was improved after 2 weeks of the procedure in the whole 33 eyes(p<0.05). There was no superiority between collagen implant and chromic catgut. There was no improvement by score of the Schirmer test and the BUT in each group(p<0.05). We concluded that chromic catgut was easily applicable, very effective, inexpensive and showed less complication compared with collagen implant. We suggested that it could be used more widely in punctal occlusion in dry eye patients.
Catgut* ; Collagen ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans

A total of 42 vas anastomoses was performed on experimental animals and successful anastomoses were obtained 19 of the cases and the over-all rate of success was approximately 46 per cent. But 13 dogs in total of 21 dogs were found to be patent in at least one side of vas, or about 65 per cent of total dogs were restored their fecundity. Splinting materials used in this comparative study are chromic catgut, stainless steel wire, dermalon and polyethylen tube, and dermalon has been proved as the most excellent splinting material among thembecause it is no figid but plable and makes no tissue reaction in the vas. Successful anastomosis of vas deferent is affected by many factors. Among these, an inadequate splinting material has been considered as the most important causes of failures. But it should seem that minimal dissection of the tied points of vas as satisfactory approximation of the free ends of vas exert very important effect upon the successful anastomosis as the splinting material does. Consecutive four successful anastomosis of human cases are highly satisfactory results and are very encouraging even in a small series of cases of the present study.
Animals* ; Catgut ; Dogs ; Fertility ; Humans* ; Nylons ; Splints* ; Stainless Steel ; Vasectomy*

OBJECTIVETo observe therapeutic effect of acupuncture combined with catgut embedding therapy on peripheral facial paralysis.

METHODSTreatment group of 158 cases were treated by acupuncture combined with catgut embedding therapy and control group of 54 cases were treated by acupuncture, and their therapeutic effects were compared.

RESULTSThere was no significant difference in the total effective rate (P > 0.05), but the cured rate in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONAcupuncture combined with catgut embedding therapy is a better therapy for facial paralysis.

Eighteen experimentally induced blunt and sharp renal injury in rabbits were treated either with an alloplastic renal capsule made of Vicryl mesh or with through and through chromic catgut sutures or with no suture as controls. A simple apparatus was used to cause uniform renal injury and the device was modification of an AO Kuntscher nail extractor. The Vicryl mesh capsule was made by ourselves with #2 and #4 Vicryl. The postoperative healing course were followed up until 6 weeks and isotope renogram showed good renal function in 15 cases. However, when compared to the controls, the kidney which had been repaired with Vicryl mesh contained considerably less scar and showed neither perirenal fibrosis or atrophy of the parenchyma in the vicinity of the capsule. Our preliminary results seem to confirm that simple and rapid surgical treatment of intermediate degree renal injuries is possible using the alloplastic Vicryl mesh capsule. The method may be also suitable for reconstruction of the parenchyma following nephrotomies, such as for removal of staghorn calculi.
Atrophy ; Calculi ; Catgut ; Cicatrix ; Fibrosis ; Kidney* ; Polyglactin 910* ; Rabbits ; Sutures

OBJECTIVETo explore clinical mechanisms of acupoint catgut embedding for treatment of simple obesity.

METHODSThirty-two cases of simple obesity were treated by acupoint catgut embedding and acupoints were selected based on differentiation of symptoms and signs. After treatment for 1 or 2 therapeutic courses, the clinical therapeutic effect and changes of the body weight, obesity degree, body mass index, circumferences of the chest, lumbus and buttock. and blood lipids and blood glucose were investigated.

RESULTSAfter one course the total effective rate was 84.4% and after 2 courses it was 90.0%. After the treatment, the various indexes all changed significantly, the longer the treatment time, the better the therapeutic effect.

CONCLUSIONAcupoint catgut embedding has a satisfactory therapeutic effect on obesity, with advantages of simple manipulation and saving time.

OBJECTIVETo compare therapeutic effects of catgut implantation at acupoint and routine acupuncture on prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc.

METHODSOne hundred and forty cases were randomly divided into a treatment group and a control group, 70 cases in each group. The treatment group were treated with catgut implantation at acupoint, once each week, 3 sessions constituting one course, and the control group with routine acupuncture, once every other day, 10 sessions constituting one course.

RESULTSThe effective rate was 95.6% after treatment of one course and 88.2% 3 months later in the treatment group, which were better than 84.6% and 72.3% in the control group, respectively (Both P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONCatgut implantation at acupoint has a better therapeutic effect on prolapse of lumbar intervertebral disc, with lower cost.

OBJECTIVETo observe the clinical effificacy of treatment with catgut implantation at acupoints on simple obesity.

METHODSFollowing the theory of Chinese medicine (CM), pattern identification (PI) and treatment was based on the patient's symptoms and signs. Patients were observed during three courses and one year following treatment through self-comparison before and after six or seven acupoints catgut implantation. Obesity was divided into fifive types based on PI: (1) Stomach (Wei) and Intestine excess-heat, (2) Spleen (Pi) defificiency and phlegmwet stagnancy, (3) Liver (Gan)-qi stagnation, (4) Spleen-Kidney (Shen) yang deficiency, and (5) Liver-Kidney yin defificiency. Changes in the following measurements were recorded in 820 patients: body weight, body girth, skinfold thickness, body mass index (BMI), fat percentage (F%) and waist/hip ratio (WHR) and in the following blood values: leptin (LP), insulin (INS), blood lipids, fasting blood sugar (FBS), and insulin sensitive index (ISI) before and after the treatment. Values were compared with those of healthy controls (normal group).

RESULTSCatgut implantation showed effificacy with all fifive types of obesity. Effificacy was greater in males than in females. There was no signifificant difference between the different types by Kruskal-Wallis H test, but the effect was best and of the highest number in patients with Stomach and Intestine excess-heat. Skin-fold thickness, body weight, waist circumference, F%, BMI, and WHR in all 820 cases decreased after treatment (at 90 days and one year), with signifificant differences before and after treatment (P<0.01). Improved metabolism of blood lipids was also seen. Following treatment, LP, INS, and FBS decreased signifificantly (P<0.01) and ISI increased signifificantly (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONCatgut implantation at acupoints provided effective and persistent results, convenience, safety, painlessness, and prolonged effect with no side effects, resulting in reduced body weight and fat and improvement in body shape.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety of thread embedding acupuncture therapy (TEAT) and discuss the prevention and treatment of some adverse events (AEs). METHODS: Review of databases, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), CBMdisc, Wanfang, VIP databases and English literature published in PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Science, were searched from their inception to January 2020, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and case reports in which AEs with TEAT were included. Cochrane Collaboration's tool and RevMan V.5.3.3 software were used to evaluate the quality of the studies. RESULTS: A total of 61 studies (45 RCTs and 16 case reports) with 620 cases of AEs were included in this review. These studies were published in two countries: China and South Korea. Twenty eight kinds of AEs were summarized. The most common AEs were induration, bleeding and ecchymosis, redness and swelling, fever, and pain. They were accounted for 75.35% (425/564) in the review, and most of them were mild. The rarest AEs were epilepsy, irregular menstruation, skin ulcer, thread malabsorption, and fat liquefaction, with 1 case each. But not all of them had clear causal relationship with TEAT. Most of the AEs were local reactions [with incidence of 9.83% (480/4,882)] and systemic reactions accounted for only 1.27% (62/4,882). Although the included studies showed that AEs were very commonly encountered (11.09%), only 5 cases of severe AEs reported from 2013 to 2017 (0.1%) by using catgut thread, which are rarely seen nowdays with the wide use of new absorbable surgical suture. All of the severe AEs were recovered after symptomatic treatment with no sequelae. CONCLUSIONS The evidence showed that TEAT is a relatively safe and convenient therapy especially since application of new absorbable surgical suture. Improving practitioner skills, regulating operations, and paying attention to the patients' conditions may reduce the incidence of AEs and improve safety of TEAT.
Acupuncture Therapy/adverse effects* ; Catgut ; China ; Female ; Humans ; Pain ; Software

Acupoint medicated catgut embedding therapy is a new type of acupuncture combined with medicine，which has great potential in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. This paper describes the clinical application of acupoint medicated catgut embedding in the treatment of common disease, medicated thread productionmethods and acupoints selection.To analyze the problems of the unclear mechanism, the lack of standardization of medicated thread production, the lag of the embedding tool, and the unclear adverse reaction. It is expected to promote the further development of acupoint medicated catgut embedding therapy by strengthening the mechanism of action, optimizing medicated catgut thread, rational design experiments, standardizing medicated thread production, innovating embedding tools, rational formulation, and optimizing acupoint selection.
Acupuncture Points ; Acupuncture Therapy ; Catgut ; Combined Modality Therapy ; Humans

Five patients with isolated avulsion fracture of the tibial attachment of the posterior cruciate ligament were treated in our hospital from September, 1975 to May, 1978. Among the five patients. one was treated conservatively and the others by surgical repair using catgut suture, cancellous bone screw fixation and staple fixation. Four patients were followed from 4 to 10 months poatoperatively. Satisfactory results were obtained in four patients (one was loat in follow up).
Bone Screws ; Catgut ; Humans ; Posterior Cruciate Ligament ; Sutures