Professor Gao Tianshu Summed Up The Experience Of Treating Gouty Arthritis From Wet Poison

Gouty arthritis is a heterogeneous chronic metabolic disease with inflammation induced by purine metabolism disorder, combined with uric acid salt crystals precipitate deposited in the joints and surrounding tissue. It is characterized by a sudden onset and development, with swelling and pain of joints being specific clinical manifestations, often accompanied by hyperuricemia. Gouty arthritis may develop into chronic interstitial nephritis and gout stone in the advanced stage. This disease mainly occurs in the elderly men, with fluctuation of serum uric acid due to improper medication and diet which may induce repeated attack of acute gouty arthritis and enormous harm.Traditional Chinese Medicine, with its quick and accurate curative effect and little side effect, has an advantage in the treatment of gouty arthritis. From the point of view of clinical manifestations, the disease can be attributed to the category of arthralgia syndrome. Many physicians believe that the pathogenesis of gouty arthritis is root deficiency and branch excess. Root deficiency manifests as deficiency of spleen and kidney, metabolic disorder of the pure and the turbid while branch excess tends to be related to pathological factors such as dampness-heat, turbid phlegm and static blood. Thus, clearing heat and draining dampness, resolving phlegm and dispelling stasis, dredging collaterals and relieving pain are adopted as the major therapeutic methods for gouty arthritis.Professor Gao Tianshu is inversed in medical classics and has been engaged in clinical work for more than 20 years, accumulating rich experience in the treatment of gouty arthritis. He insists that the disease tends to be induced by improper diet and living conditions, resulting in dysfunction of spleen in transportation and internal dampness, during which dampness pathogen turns into toxin, then instills into joints, tendons and bones, and thus disease ensues. Based on the above-mentioned pathogenesis of gouty arthritis, professor Gao advocates treatment in terms of internal dampness toxin, with Simiaosan being the basic formula and eliminating dampness toxin the therapeutic principle for the treatment process of the disease. In the acute period, dampness toxin transforms into fire, which manifests as painful joints and unsmooth movement; in this case, purging fire and removing toxin, removing dampness and relieving pain should be adopted as therapeutic principles. In the chronic period, dampness toxin lingers; in this case, removing dampness and toxin, combined with invigorating spleen and resolving dampness should be employed as the major therapeutic method. Gouty arthritis accompanied by diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia or other metabolic disorders pertains to dampness toxin transforming into phlegm, and method of eliminating and revolving dampness toxin can be adjusted to the treatment, which has witnessed excellent efficacy in clinical practice.Under the guidance of professor Gao, the author participated in the whole process of clinical diagnosis and treatment and made observation and records of Gao's clinical practice in treating the disease. Finally, by referring to relative medical theories, the author summarized professor Gao's clinical experience of treating gouty arthritis tentatively.