Repeated Postoperative Adhesive Small Bowel Obstruction Treated with Daeseunggi-tang and Acupuncture Treatment in Elderly: A Case Report

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Postoperative adhesive small bowel obstruction (ASBO) is an intractable disorder which sometimes leads to adhesiolysis or small bowel resection. These therapeutic reoperations, however, also have many limitations including complications. An 80-year-old female, who had undergone 4-abdominal surgeries, visited the hospital with continuous vomiting. Based on her clinical symptoms and history, multiple air-fluid levels and distention of the small bowel in an abdominal X-ray, we diagnosed her with postoperative incomplete ASBO. We conducted acupuncture and an herbal medicine enema to stimulate bowel movement and relieve pain. The patient came in complaining of abdominal pain and vomited more than 10 times on hospital day 0 stopping on hospital day 4. Comparing hospital day 0 with hospital day 4, the abdominal pain decreased from a numerical rating scale (NRS) 10 to 4. There were no side effects such as redness or burns during the treatment process. This study presented an acupuncture-based treatment will be helpful for clinicians managing cases of ASBO with poor performance in elderly individuals.