Kampo treatment is frequently effective for patients with acne vulgaris who are unresponsive to standard treatment with western medicine. We report two cases of acne vulgaris successfully treated with tokikenchuto. In the first case, a 32-year-old woman complained of mild acne, loose stool and menstrual pain. Her abdomen was soft and a pulsation above the navel was noted. These symptoms were considerably improved after taking tokikenchuto. In the second case, a 26-year-old woman presented with moderate acne, loose stool and menstrual pain with excessive strain of the abdominal muscles and objective tenderness on the sides of the abdomen. Kamishoyosan and tokishakuyakusan were first prescribed, although these caused bowel disturbances, and eventually tokikenchuto was prescribed, which improved the acne. We suggest tokikenchuto is effective for patients with mild to moderate acne who have bowel disturbance with soft abdomen or excessive strain of the abdominal muscles, which are considered indicators of gastrointestinal weakness. In addition, yokuinin has a synergistic effect in the treatment of acne.

Purpose: Approximately 30% of the patients who received intervention from a palliative care team for problematic symptoms (e.g., pain, nausea, depression) also underwent rehabilitation at our acute hospital. We investigated their changes in activities of daily living (ADLs) and outcomes (i.e., death, changing hospitals, or being discharged to their homes). Method: We retrospectively analyzed the patients’ medical records data to examine patient training content, Barthel Index (B.I.) scores, and outcomes. Results: For one year, 86 patients received rehabilitation and 42 (48%) underwent anticancer therapy. B.I. scores increased for 35% of the patients, were stable for 20%, and decreased for 45%; 95% of the patients with decreased B.I. scores could not be discharged home. Conclusion: Advanced cancer patients are likely to experience a decline in ADLs and require longer rehabilitation periods to improve. A team approach is important for preventing disuse syndromes within a palliative care setting.

Purpose: Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of sublingual drug administration in palliative care patients lacking the ability to swallow as well as other drug administration routes. Methods: Buprenorphine, 0.1∼0.2mg/dose (n=15) and fentanyl, 0.05∼0.2mg/dose (n=26) were administered sublingually for cancer pain, and midazolam, 0.1mg/kg (n=16) for insomnia respectively. Results: The three drugs were all rapidly absorbed by the oral cavity and showed efficacy in about 90% of patients. No adverse events were observed other than drowsiness, nausea and over production of sputum in patients suffering from dysphagia. Conclusion: Sublingual administration is a viable alternative for maintaining the quality of life of patients not accessible through conventional administration routes in the palliative setting. Palliat Care Res 2010; 5(1): 201-205

We investigated original texts for yokukansan, a familiar Kampo formula, focusing on the classical literature Xue-shi yi-an (薛氏医案) . Yokukansan was described in the Bao-ying jin-jing-lu (保嬰金鏡録) written by Xue ji (薛己) in 1550, the Xiao-er yao-zheng zhi-jue (小児薬証直訣) revised by Xue ji (薛己) in 1551,the Bao-ying cuo-yao (保嬰撮要) by Xue kai (薛鎧) in 1556, and the Xiao-er dou-zhen fang-lun (小児痘疹方論) in 1550. The phrase “one's own work” was used in “Bao-ying jin-jing-lu (保嬰金鏡録)” and in the Xiao-er dou-zhen fang-lun (小児痘疹方論) by Chen wen-zhong (陳文仲). However, there was no mention of “one's own work” in the same title, the Xiao-er dou-zhen fang-lun (小児痘疹方論), as summarized by Xiong zong-li (熊宗立).
Yokukansan was found only in the Xiao-er yao-zheng zhi-jue (小児薬証直訣) revised by Xue ji (薛己) in 1551, but not in the other copies of the same text. Therefore, it seems likely that yokukansan was created by Xue ji (薛己) himself.
Yokukansan was previously thought to have originated with the Bao-ying cuo-yao (保嬰撮要). However, based on use of the phrase “one's own work” in the classical literature, it appears that the original text for yokukansan should be the Bao-ying jin-jing-lu (保嬰金鏡録). Therefore, yokukansan seems to have been made by Xue ji (薛己), and not Xue kai (薛鎧), who was his father.

High-quality terminal care cannot be given without good communication and understanding among patients, their family members and health as well as medical professionals.Recently, we have taken a questionnaire survey on new inpatients in our hospital to sound them out on their thinkings about hospital care, and examined the findings along with the validity of survey.Many respondents including those contracting either benign or malignant diseases wished to be keptposted on what they are really up against and to partake in the decision-making process before treatment plans are put into practice. The recent questionnaire survey has proved to be worthwhile as a tool to know the wishes of hospitalized patients and suggested an effective way to promote the practice of obtaining informed consent before specific test and therapautic procedure.

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine information quality by quantitatively evaluating newspaper stories on drug therapy using the “Media Doctor” instrument.Methods: A database search was conducted to extract newspaper stories on drug therapy published between July 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017. Two evaluators independently evaluated each story using the “Media Doctor” instrument. Each of the 10 evaluation criteria were rated as “satisfactory” or “not satisfactory.” When the content of the story was not suitable for the evaluation criteria, it was regarded as “not applicable”.Results: Fifty-nine news stories (Asahi: 13, Mainichi: 8, Nikkei: 8, Sankei: 14, Yomiuri: 16) were included. The median number of evaluation criteria that the two evaluators judged as “satisfactory” was 5. The proportions of stories that the two evaluators judged as satisfactory were “1. availability,” 73%; “2. novelty,” 66%; “3. alternatives,” 39%; “4. disease mongering,” 58%; “5. evidence,” 32%; “6. quantification of benefits,” 31%; “7. harm,” 41%; “8. cost,” 22%; “9. sources of information/conflict of interest,” 12%; and “10. headline,” 66%. Conversely, the proportions of stories judged as “not satisfactory” were “1. availability,” 0%; “2. novelty,” 5%; “3. alternatives,” 12%; “4. disease mongering,” 8%; “5. evidence,” 24%; “6. quantification of benefits,” 29%; “7. harm,” 41%; “8. cost,”44%; “9. sources of information/conflict of interest,” 32%; and “10. headline,” 12%.Conclusion: These results suggest that the quality of newspaper stories are insufficient as drug information in terms of the validity of its scientific evidence.

OBJECTIVES: The number of patients with bilateral cochlear implant (CI) has gradually increased as patients and/or parents recognize its effectiveness. The purpose of this report is to evaluate the efficacy of 29 bilateral CI out of 169 pediatric CI users, who received auditory-verbal/oral habilitation at our hearing center. METHODS: We evaluated the audiological abilities 29 Japanese children with bilateral CIs including wearing threshold, word recognition score, speech discrimination score at 1 m from front speaker (SP), 1 m from second CI side SP, speech discrimination score under the noise (S/N ratio=80 dB sound pressure level [SPL]/70 dB SPL, 10 dB) at 1 m from front SP, word recognition score under the noise (S/N ratio=80 dB SPL/70 dB SPL, 10 dB) at 1 m from front SP. RESULTS: Binaural hearing using bilateral CI is better than first CI in all speech understanding tests. Especially, there were significant differences between the results of first CI and bilateral CI on SDS at 70 dB SPL (P=0.02), SDS at 1 m from second CI side SP at 60 dB SPL (P=0.02), word recognition score (WRS) at 1 m from second CI side SP at 60 dB SPL (P=0.02), speech discrimination score (SDS) at 1 m from front SP under the noise (S/N=80/70; P=0.01) and WRS at 1 m from front SP under the noise (S/N=80/70; P=0.002). At every age, a second CI is very effective. However, the results of under 9 years old were better than of over 9 years old on the mean SDS under the noise (S/N=80/70) on second CI (P=0.04). About use of a hearing aid (HA) in their opposite side of first CI, on the WRS and SDS under the noise, there were significant differences between the group of over 3 years and the group of under 10 months of HA non user before second CI. CONCLUSION: These results may show important binaural effectiveness such as binaural summation and head shadow effect. Bilateral CI is very useful medical intervention for many children with severe-to-profound hearing loss in Japan as well as elsewhere.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Child ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Head ; Hearing ; Hearing Aids ; Hearing Loss ; Humans ; Japan ; Noise ; Parents ; Speech Perception

Many postpartum women experience various poor physical conditions and are unresponsive to Western medical treatments. In such cases, treatments with Kampo medicine have so far focused on improving qi deficiency alone or both qi and blood deficiencies. This study describes the three cases of the patients for whom a favorable outcome was achieved despite a relatively poor prognosis by better understanding their status before pregnancy and their conditions during pregnancy and delivery, and by combining treatments for liver­qi stagnation with those for improving prenatal or postnatal qi deficiency.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted multi-directional language development tests as a part of the Research on Sensory and Communicative Disorders (RSVD) in Japan. This report discusses findings as well as factors that led to better results in children with severe-profound hearing loss. METHODS: We evaluated multiple language development tests in 33 Japanese children with cochlear implants (32 patients) and hearing aid (1 patient), including 1) Test for question and answer interaction development, 2) Word fluency test, 3) Japanese version of the Peabody picture vocabulary test-revised, 4) The standardized comprehension test of abstract words, 5) The screening test of reading and writing for Japanese primary school children, 6) The syntactic processing test of aphasia, 7) Criterion-referenced testing (CRT) for Japanese language and mathematics, 8) Pervasive development disorders ASJ rating scales, and 9) Raven's colored progressive matrices. Furthermore, we investigated the factors believed to account for the better performances in these tests. The first group, group A, consisted of 14 children with higher scores in all tests than the national average for children with hearing difficulty. The second group, group B, included 19 children that scored below the national average in any of the tests. RESULTS: Overall, the results show that 76.2% of the scores obtained by the children in these tests exceeded the national average scores of children with hearing difficulty. The children who finished above average on all tests had undergone a longer period of regular habilitation in our rehabilitation center, had their implants earlier in life, were exposed to more auditory verbal/oral communication in their education at affiliated institutions, and were more likely to have been integrated in a regular kindergarten before moving on to elementary school. CONCLUSION: In this study, we suggest that taking the above four factors into consideration will have an affect on the language development of children with severe-profound hearing loss.
Aphasia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Child ; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive ; Cochlear Implants ; Communication Disorders ; Comprehension ; Hearing ; Hearing Aids ; Hearing Loss ; Humans ; Japan ; Language Development ; Mass Screening ; Mathematics ; Rehabilitation Centers ; Vocabulary ; Weights and Measures ; Writing

  One of the characteristics of nursing in Southeast Asia is the ASEAN Mutual Recognition Arrangements on Nursing Services, which strengthens professional capabilities through four objectives include facilitating mobility of nursing professionals within ASEAN.  The Japanese government supports human resources for health in the ASEAN region, as a member country of ASEAN+3. A meeting was held at the Annual Meeting of the Japan Association for International Health 2017. The meeting objectives were as follows: (1) to share three nursing research findings regarding nursing migration, regulatory framework, and in-service training that may affect quality of nursing and (2) to discuss Japan’s role in improving the quality of nursing in the ASEAN region. This report aims to summarize the presentations and points of that meeting.   The academic level of nursing education and nursing regulations have improved in ASEAN member countries. All member countries have university nursing education, and some have master’s and doctoral degree nursing programs. In lower middle income ASEAN countries, such as Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, the nursing education system is in the process of transition, from the technical to professional level of nursing. The next step for these countries is to strengthen the capabilities of nursing teachers who are responsible for professional nursing education at universities. The ASEAN University Network and universities in neighboring Thailand could also contribute to this end. In-service training is also needed because the guidance of more experienced nurses is crucial in nursing service as well as nursing practicums. Japan’s experience of developing an in-service training system could be useful for some ASEAN countries.   The objective of mobility among nursing professionals within the ASEAN has yet to be accomplished. However, there are pull and push factors of nurse migration due to economic conditions within the ASEAN. It is predicted that nurse migration will occur with mixed-skill caregivers to high income countries out of the ASEAN countries, because of the lack of caregivers for the aging population. In order to ensure quality nursing in the ASEAN region, it is not only necessary to share country-level experiences to improve nursing education and regulations but also crucial to develop systems that promote the circulation of nursing professionals through wide regional cooperation.