Case reports by health professionals

10 Clinical cases  by Valérie Schang

 

Acute Knee Pain

 

Eric, 24 years old, while going down the stairs felt a crack in his left knee. The rest of the day went well but the next morning, he could no longer put his foot on the ground without pain. He took painkillers for 15 days without any medium-term results, he is on sick leave. His mother takes him to me because he cannot drive, he walks with crutches so as not to put his foot down.

 

On palpation the thigh is hot with unpleasant pressure, the leg is colder = Centrifugal Yang Dam.

After the first stimulation of the point, I ask him, if possible, to get up and walk. The pain is quite intense but he can now put his foot down.

After 4 stimulations of this point, Eric walks without limping and without pain.

I stimulate the next Barrier point before it leaves.

 

His mother came to the office 1 month later, Eric returned to work the following Monday and no longer had knee pain.  

 

 

Chronic pain in both feet

 

Chantal, 64 years old, comes for pain in both feet, but more present in the right foot for at least a year, the pain has worsened for several months and she has edema in the ankles. No history of falls, pain worse when moving. If Chantal walks too much, the pain goes up to the knee and sometimes to mid-thigh.

 

There is a Centripetal Yang Barrier at the ankle: the foot is hot with unpleasant pressure, the corresponding point is stimulated = the pain is improved, we go from 8 to 6.

2nd  stimulation: The pain decreases again to reach 5 ^.

3rd stimulation: The pain drops to 4.

4th stimulation: There is no further improvement.

Before her departure the point of the next Barrier is stimulated.

 

Chantal comes back a week later, the pain has completely returned, but it no longer increases, it remains focused on the right foot.

No more pain in the left foot but she still has edema.

Blood Stasis point is stimulated for chronicity, pain does not decrease.

 

I stimulate the local point for Excess Yang, small improvement.

The local point of the lower limb for Excess Yang brings great improvement.

I stimulate it 5 times with an improvement each time.

Chantal left without pain, she walks well.

 

 

Post-surgical knee pain

 

Bernard, 74 years old, underwent knee surgery, fitting a prosthesis 7 months ago. Everything went very well, there is only a little pain that persists, not disabling but rather annoying.

I stimulate the Blood Stasis point, for surgery and chronicity (the knee pain existed of course before the operation, and motivated it): improvement of the discomfort.

2nd stimulation of the same point, no improvement.

 

I notice a Centrifugal Yin Barrier (his thigh is colder than his leg, and the pressure there is unpleasant), stimulation of the corresponding point, clear improvement.

After a 2nd stimulation of the point he no longer feels the discomfort.

The next Barrier point is stimulated in prevention.

To date, no news of a relapse.

 

 

 

Multiple and mobile pains

 

Murielle, 41 years old, comes for multiple pains and not necessarily in the same place. She says that her pains "move". Murielle is very tired, her sleep is interrupted several times a night and in these cases, she gets up, goes to watch television and goes back to sleep after about 20-30 minutes. Her pains decrease when she moves but do not go away completely, she tends to be cold and has difficulty warming up.

Stagnation of Yin = Void of Yang.

 

She hasn't had any back pain in the last 6 months, so I treat her with moxas. She finds the heat very pleasant, but she can't stand it for very long, about 2 minutes. So I move from one point to another quite quickly because over the course of the session, she can only stand the heat for a few seconds.

2nd  session 1 week later. There is no real result. At first, I stimulate the points with the stylus then, I finish with the moxa.

 

3rd  session: Murielle still wakes up at night but it is less frequent and no longer needs to get up, she goes back to sleep in a few minutes. She no longer has pain in her upper body. I stimulate the same points.

 

4th session: Still pain, but less pronounced, in the lower body, she only wakes up once during the night and quickly goes back to sleep.

Her pain being in the legs, the point for Blood Stasis in the lower part of the body is stimulated.

The points for Yang void are also stimulated, but she did not appreciate the heat of the moxa.

 

5th session: Murielle no longer wakes up, she no longer has pain in her legs but simply a feeling of swelling. She is delighted with the results.

 

 

 

Acute Shoulder Pain

 

Batiste, 29, comes for shoulder pain that appeared while playing tennis on a backhand. The pain is aggravated by movement:

Excess of Yang = Deficiency of Yin.

Yin Centrifugal Barrier, his chest is cold with an unpleasant pressure.

The specific point is stimulated, 3 times, pain improved from 8 to 5 ^,

4th  stimulation, no improvement ^,

I stimulate the local point of excess Yang, the pain goes to 2,

At the 2nd stimulation, the pain remains at 2,

As a precaution, the next Barrier point is stimulated.

 

Batiste comes back the following week.

The pain went back up to 4.

However, the Barrier no longer exists.

I stimulate the local point of excess Yang, the pain decreases to 3,

At the 2nd stimulation, there is no improvement.

Since his pain is due to a brutal gesture, I stimulate the Blood Stasis point of the upper limb: no more pain.

 

 

 

Acute low back pain

 

Nathalie 53 years old, lower back pain for a few days. A hernia L4-L5 on the MRI of 2019. New MRI, this hernia no longer appears but there is one in L5-S1.

The lower back is warmer than the buttocks with unpleasant pressure. Her pain is at 10.

The point of this Barrier is stimulated while Nathalie remains seated, because she has difficulty getting up when she is lying down. Very small improvement.

2nd  stimulation, the result is better ^,

3rd  stimulation, there is still an improvement, Nathalie can lie down ^.

4th  stimulation, pain went from 10 to 5, 5tt stimulation, no improvement,

Another point of this Barrier is stimulated, no improvement. She feels tired and Nathalie prefers to come back.

As a precaution, I stimulate the next Barrier point.

 

Nathalie returned 3 days later, the pain had returned to 7 in the evening, then dropped back to 4-5 the next day.

The 2nd Barrier point is stimulated again, the pain goes to 3,

2nd stimulation, no improvement, 3rd stimulation, no improvement.

 

As Nathalie had a hernia in the past following a fall while skiing, the local Blood Stasis point is stimulated, then there is no more pain, just a little discomfort persists. Nathalie prefers to stop.

15 days later and following my message, Nathalie said that she no longer had any pain and was considering starting to go for walks again.

 

 

 

Chronic ankle sprain

 

Emeline, 8 years old, sprained her right ankle 6 months ago while running. Her ankle was strapped for several weeks, followed by several rehabilitation sessions. Despite this, her ankle is sensitive when she walks too much and she only does sports with a strap.

The Blood Stasis point in the lower body is stimulated, Emeline can't tell if it's better or not, because in the morning, she doesn't really feel any pain.

There is a Centripetal Yang Dam, her foot is hot with an unpleasant pressure, the specific point is stimulated. Still no response from Emeline.

I still do a 2nd stimulation, then I stimulate the point of the next Barrier.

We make an appointment one evening and the day of sports.

 

Emeline arrives limping a little. 

The Blood Stasis point of the lower body is stimulated, no improvement,

The Barrier being still present after verification, its point is stimulated, there is an improvement but Emeline cannot quantify it.

2nd stimulation, again an improvement.

3rd  stimulation, I ask Emeline to walk a little more, she no longer limps ^,

4th stimulation, there is no more pain.

As a precaution, I stimulate the next Barrier point.

To date, no news from Emeline.

 

 

 

Lower Limb Pain

 

Romuald, 39 years old, pain for about 2 months in the left lower limb with a cold sensation in the outer thigh. No fall, no intervention, no trauma, he does not know how it started. He arrived with pain but not cold. There is no worsening or improvement with movement or rest.

No Ankle Barrier.

Yin Centrifuge Barrier at the knee, his thigh is colder than the leg with unpleasant pressure. His point is stimulated, the pain goes from 5 to 4,

2nd stimulation, improvement from 4 to 2,

3rd stimulation, no improvement.

4th stimulation, I ask him to walk a little longer, no more pain.

 

Romuald contacts me the next day because the pain has come back a little in the evening, we make an appointment 5 days later, he cancels the appointment because the pain has gone the day after his call.

 

 

 

Chronic multiple pains

 

Beatrice, 64 years old, multiple pains for a year. She has been retired for a year and is taking it very badly, feels useless.

Her pains are mainly on the right side: the shoulder, the ribs, the knee. No improvement or worsening with movement or rest.

I only find one Barrier at the knee: Centrifugal Yin Dam, her thigh is colder than her leg and the pressure is unpleasant.

The specific point is stimulated, no result.

A global Blood Stasis point is stimulated, no result,

Another global Blood Stasis point is stimulated, no result.

I decide then to stimulate the Ben Shen points.

At the end of the session, her face is closed, she doesn't want another appointment.

 

Beatrice calls me a few days later, she wants an appointment because the session did her good.

We did 3 sessions with Ben Shen, Beatrice feels much better, only pain remains in her knee.

 

We do a 4th session solely for her knee.

The Barrier point is stimulated, the pain decreases from 6 to 3,

2nd stimulation, the pain is gone,

As a precaution, the next Barrier point is stimulated.

I heard from Beatrice through her neighbor who had addressed her to me: she helps out in an association several days a week.

 

 

 

Chronic anxiety

 

Amandine, 52, comes for a feeling of unease that has lasted since her adolescence, following assaults in her childhood.

The Ben Shen points are stimulated.

2nd  session a week later, Amandine feels much better, she was looking forward to her 2nd session. 

3rd  session, she says she has never felt so good for a long time ^.

 

 

 13 Clinical Cases - by Jérémy Buchholtz , Physiotherapist (54)

 

1°   Pain following a mammogram

 

Mrs. L. (58 years old) comes for a physiotherapy consultation for shoulder problems. She arrives for a session and tells me about a pain she feels in her chest on the left side following a mammogram performed a few days before.

I suggest that I try to help her with Acu-AnMo.

I think of Blood Stasis since she describes to me poor handling of the breast by the person in charge of the examination.

I stimulate the Blood Stasis point in the chest 6 times to overcome his pain.

The following week I saw her again for a consultation. The pain had not returned.

 

I also performed this same treatment which worked very well for a patient who had rib pain following a fall.

 

 

 

2°   Elongation of the internal gastrocnemius

 

Mr G. (56 years old) who I am following for lower back pain tells me that he suffered a small injury to his calf following a run and has been feeling pain which has been bothering him since then when he walks.

I translate his pain into an energetic diagnosis and stimulate the excess Yang point in the leg.

After 3 stimulations, the patient was able to walk without pain and after the 5th stimulation he could even trot.

 

 

 

3°   Bilateral sciatica

 

I am seeing Mr S. (78 years old) again in consultation, whom I treated for a heel spur.

He comes because he suddenly developed bilateral posterior sciatic pain (day and night) which bothers him a lot.

He has a hunting party that he absolutely has to take part in this coming weekend. So it's going to be complicated for him...

He is diabetic, and has quite a history of trauma, including regular sciatica that recurs regularly.

I decide to try the Lower Body Blood Stasis point, for seniority.

The left side is a little more painful, so I start with that one.

Five stimulations make the pain on the left completely disappear.

He is already delighted with the speed of the treatment. I then try this same point on the other leg and just as quickly, with four stimulations, the sciatica has disappeared on this side too.

He was able to have a worry-free weekend.

 

 

4°   Shock to the toes

 

I am a patient G. (39 years old) in hypopressive abdominal gym after giving birth.

She shows up on a Monday morning limping. She actually stubbed her foot on a flower pot over the weekend and asks if there's anything I can do for her pain.

On examination I notice a bruise on toes 3/4/5, and one might think that they might be broken.

 

I tried a Lower Limb Blood Stasis point which I repeated five times, which allowed him to reduce his pain when walking.

I put three drops of Italian Helichrysum to act on her hematoma at the end of the session. We saw each other again at her niece's baptism at the end of the week, she was walking properly and had been able to put on pumps (inconceivable at the beginning of the week).

 

 

5°   Pain in the index finger

 

Mrs. M. (74 years old) describes pain in her index finger when she squeezes her hand.

I first check the barriers on the wrist.

I find a centripetal Yin barrier whose point I stimulate three times.

The fourth one no longer having any effect, I treated the next barrier of the same nature and after three stimulations she was able to squeeze her fingers without pain and had generally recovered strength in her hand.

 

 

 

6°   Hip pain and limping when walking

 

This is the same patient who fell in love with the technique and contacted me to see if I could help her with lateral hip pain (in relation to the greater trochanters). She cannot do her shopping properly since the pain appears after 10 minutes, preventing her from continuing without supporting herself firmly on the cart.

Once her pains appeared, they only increased in intensity when she walked,

to the point that the end of her races became very complicated every time she went there. This is the reason why I chose to treat the excess of Yang.

 

I do the distal Jing point of VB, which I stimulate twice on each side.

She went shopping after the session and I asked her to let me know how it went: the pain had halved and appeared much later than usual.

 

So I see her again for a second session where I treat her in the same way three times on each side.

After a week I saw her again and asked her if it had improved. She no longer had any pain and even took the opportunity to go for a walk with a friend.

 

 

 

7°   Knee pain

 

Mrs. M. (52 years old), a food server, walks with a knee flexum because she can no longer extend it properly. She is also unable to squat. She is scheduled to have an injection in about ten days.

 

I first look for a possible Barrier and find Yang centrifugal of the knee which I treat six times: in the end the patient can walk almost without pain.

I take the time to make the next barrier and stimulate the point three times.         

In the weight-bearing flexion test, she can squat much better.

 

I saw her again four days later for a second session.

He still has some discomfort when walking and some difficulty squatting, and his pain is a little worse at the end of the day after work.

I take the same Barrier point that I treat once but it does not give anything.

I then treat the next Barrier three times, which makes his pain disappear completely when bending under load.

 

Her husband who comes for treatment the following week brought me a box of chocolates. His wife was delighted, she only had a very slight discomfort left and she could work much more easily. She had decided not to have any more infiltrations.

 

 

 

8°   Neck pain, fatigue, anxiety

 

Mrs. B. (45 years old) complains of neck pain with limitation of amplitude in rotation and inclination on both sides, in flexion as well as in extension.

As the day goes on, she feels stiffer and the stiffness is already a little present when she wakes up. She says she is tired, and also tells me that she regularly has cold feet and a bloated stomach after eating.

I look for cervical barriers and come across Neck/mandible of the ascending Yang.

So I stimulate the corresponding point twice on the left and twice on the right.

I then treat the next Barrier twice on the right and three times on the left.

All this allowed for recovery of cervical mobility in all planes with reduction in pain.

 

During this same session, I also give him VC.14, VC.15, VC.16 for anxiety.

I then see her again for a second session where I do VC.12 with moxa for her bloating.

Since the first session, the reduction in neck pain has remained stable and the second session improved his bloating after meals.

 

Since there were several problems with this person, I turned to a Vacuum to treat, knowing that we had already worked locally on the cervical vertebrae.

We take stock during the third session, and the pain being aggravated by movement and as the day progresses, I treat the Yin Void.

When she returned for the fourth session, she felt generally better, less stiff, and more relaxed, especially at the end of the day.

So we start the Yin Void treatment again at the fifth session.

Everything is going well for her, especially when she does her household chores, where she feels less tired and more resilient.

 

 

 

9°   Knee pain

 

I received Mrs. B. (32 years old) for post-traumatic right knee rehabilitation (trama while playing handball), with pain in relation to the LLE at the start. The physiotherapy was not a great success and after two months she still had pain in hyperflexion.

In Acu-AnMo I first find a Centrifugal Yang Barrier in the knee, which I treat five times. This improves her flexion when she squats. I then do the next Barrier. At the end of the session there was still a very slight discomfort.

When I see her again for the second session I start with the Barriers, she progresses a little bit but she describes a slight pain in a line which persists on the inner side of the knee and close to the kneecap.

I then decided to test the Xi point of the Spleen, and after four stimulations, she no longer had any pain. She was able to resume her sport 100%.

 

 

 

10° Low back pain

 

Mr A. (62 years old), footballer, presents with lower back pain with sacroiliac pain on the left which persists after physiotherapy.

We decided to do Acu-AnMo because he described an increase in pain when he started sprinting.

I first treated the Descending Yang Barrier five times. The pain decreased considerably, EVA=5. I continued with the Descending Yang Barrier at the Hip, point stimulated four times and the pain decreased again EVA=3.

Just getting the patient to walk was enough to get the pain to subside. I then tried the Yang Barrier going down to the knee which didn't help.

Lastly I used the distal Jing point for the sacroiliac pain he felt when running. We tested the pain by doing the anterior flexion test and after three stimulations he could incline more than 90° without limitation or discomfort at the joint.

When I saw him again, he was pain free and could sprint again.

 

 

11°   Constipation

 

I treated Mrs B. (38 years old) who I was following for cervical problems: we carried out an Acu-AnMo session which reduced her pain by 90%.

That's when she adopted the technique and asked me if I could do something for chronic constipation problems (she has been on a diet for some time avoiding what causes her the most problems).

First I looked for a possible lumbar barrier.

I found Yang descending, also confirmed by a fairly strong pain when compressing the lower abdomen.

I treated her twice and used abdominal pressure as a test. The pain was less severe under pressure by about 80%.

I then treated the Yin and Blood Stagnation of the abdomen three times and asked him to wait until the next session to see how his body reacted.

When she came back, she was much better. She had a good bowel movement. I advised her to take Camelina oil to maintain the benefits of the session.

Since then, she sent me her husband to treat him for elbow pain.

The news is that she hasn't been bothered by this since this session.

 

 

 

12°    Popliteal cyst after knee prosthesis

 

I took charge of Mrs. L.'s (70 years old) rehabilitation in physiotherapy immediately after the TKR. We had made good progress for two and a half months and then I didn't see her for about a month (summer vacation for her and me).

She drove down to southern Italy for her vacation and then came back up.

There she had almost no more pain and walked almost normally but when she returned, she started limping again with severe pain behind her knee, which woke her up at night, and a stiff knee with a 10° flexion that we had not yet managed to recover.

When she returned from vacation, she had a consultation with the surgeon who told her about algodystrophy, which was confirmed by a scintigraphy two weeks later.

An ultrasound also revealed a popliteal cyst.

I first tried manual therapy in physiotherapy treatment which did not work.

During the clinical examination, she actually had a lump behind her knee that had been hurting her when pressed since the beginning.

 

I suggested that he do Acu-AnMo to see if we could unblock the situation a little differently, because the surgeon had told him to stop the physiotherapy.

Session 1 on 09/05/2022:

I first look for the Barriers and find a centripetal Yin Barrier at the knee, so I stimulate the point four times, which gives him an overall improvement in walking.

Session 2 on 06/09/2022:

I continue with the Barriers and I stimulate the centripetal Yin Barrier point six times, which completely makes the pain behind the knee disappear: she tells me when palpating her knee that she feels that the "lump" behind her knee has diminished.

Session 3 on 09/08/2022:

She felt pain behind her knee at night and had to take pills to make it go away but no longer had trouble walking during the day.

I take the Barriers again and base myself on the stiffness of the knee. I refer as a test to an anterior pain on the external side of the knee that she feels when she wants to crush the knee on the table, as well as to the pain behind the knee accentuated when she pulls the tip of the foot towards her at the same time as she crushes the knee.

I restimulate F. 7 three times, and then I treat the next Barrier. Doing this point three times has reduced his anterior pain, but less so the posterior pain.

So I try V.40 which corresponds to the bladder meridian (posterior pain) and which is also the A-Shi point for this patient.

Posterior pain was decreased during knee crush combined with ankle flexion.

Session 4 on 09/22/2022:

When I see her again, we take stock and she tells me that she no longer has any pain at night, that she walks much better and can straighten her leg better when she walks.

Despite everything, she still has a little overall stiffness when she gets up in the morning and at the end of the day.

 I treat Yin Stagnation in the Bladder meridian area, a point that I stimulate five times. In the test where it crushes the knee, the anterior and posterior pains disappear and we recover about 8° on the flexum.

Session 5 on 09/27/2022:

We did not need to continue the sessions because she felt very good in all respects and was very satisfied with the Acu-AnMo method.

 (The surgeon had advised him to suspend all rehabilitation because of post-operative algodystrophy…)

 

 

13° Epicondylitis

 

Mr R. (41 years old) comes to the office with epicondylitis-type pain since he went kayaking during his vacation. This pain is rather diffuse on the forearm along the Brachio-Radial. He mainly has difficulty carrying without pain and also sleeping on his arm.

To check the treatment, I have him use a 5 kg weight that he must lift, either by flexing the elbow or by raising the shoulder forward with his arm extended in line with the shoulder blade.

Session 1 on 10/06/2022:

I first stimulated the Centrifugal Yin Barrier point at the elbow five times, which reduced the pain by half. When I stimulated the next barrier, but it did not change anything despite two attempts.

I then treated the Yin Stagnation, which made his arm feel lighter, but it was with the treatment of Blood Stasis that the pain slightly diminished again.

We left it there for this first session because at the end he had difficulty clearly feeling the effects of the points.

Despite everything, speaking with him for another five minutes after the session, he tells me that he already feels better...

Session 2 on 10/18/2022:

When he comes back he feels much better and can sleep at night without difficulty.

He still describes a slight pain along a thin 2cm path at the epicondyle.

So I try to stimulate point XI given the symptoms but two stimulations do not produce anything.

 

I finally return to the last point that had relieved him in the last session, that of Blood Stasis, and three stimulations succeed in making his pain disappear.