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Traditional Chinese Nursing Using Fennel With Coarse Salt for Ironing and Umbilical Moxibustion for Epigastric Pain With Spleen-stomach Vacuity Cold.

Context
Spleen-stomach vacuity cold is the primary TCM pattern for epigastric pain, accounting for 75% of the patients. According to the TCM theory of treating both the tip and the root, epigastric pain requires the caregiver to dissipate cold and relieve pain, the treatments for the tip, which warm and supplement the spleen and stomach, the treatments for the root.


Objective
This study aimed to explore effectiveness of traditional Chinese nursing care using fennel mixed with coarse salt for ironing,with umbilical moxibustion, for epigastric pain, with a pattern of spleen-stomach vacuity cold.


Design
The research team designed a randomized control trial (RCT).


Setting
The study was conducted at Ruikang Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine in the capital city of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in the People's Republic of China.


Participants
Participants were 96 patients who had been admitted to the hospital between October and November 2020 with epigastric pain resulting from the TCM spleen-stomach vacuity cold pattern, equivalent to chronic atrophic gastritis in Western medicine.


Intervention
The research team randomly divided participants into an intervention group (n = 48) and a control group (n = 48) using a random digits table. The intervention group received fennel mixed with coarse salt for ironing, combined with umbilical moxibustion, whereas the control group received routine care.


Outcome Measures
The study's instruments included the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Syndrome Score Scale (TCMSSS), Medical Outcome Study (MOS) Short Form 36 (SF-36), and Satisfaction with TCM Nursing Program (STCMNP). Data were collected and analyzed through descriptive statistics a Chi-square test and independent t test. A significance level of P < .05 was accepted for all statistical analyses.


Results
The intervention group had mean scores that indicated significantly higher decreases in epigastric pain, and increases in quality of life and level of satisfaction with the traditional Chinese nursing care than the control group did (P < .05).


Conclusions
The traditional Chinese nursing care was able to improve epigastric pain, enhance quality of life, and increase satisfaction with the traditional Chinese nursing care.