Recovery of a patient with severe COVID-19 by acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine adjuvant to standard care

There is currently no drug or therapy that can cure the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is highly contagious and can be life-threatening in severe cases. Therefore, seeking potential effective ther-apies is an urgent task. An older female at the Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China, with a severe case of COVID-19 with significant shortness of breath and decrease in peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO(2)), was treated using manual acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine granule formula Fuzheng Rescue Lung with Xuebijing Injection in addition to standard care. The patient's breath rate, SpO(2), heart rate, ratio of neutrophil/lymphocyte (NLR), ratio of monocyte/lymphocyte (MLR), C-reactive protein (CRP), and chest computed tomography were monitored. Acupuncture significantly improved the patient's breathing function, increased SpO(2), and decreased her heart rate. Chinese herbal medicine might make the effect of acupuncture more stable; the use of herbal medicine also seemed to accelerate the absorp-tion of lung infection lesions when its dosage was increased. The combination of acupuncture and herbs decreased NLR from 14.14 to 5.83, MLR from 1.15 to 0.33 and CRP from 15.25 to 6.01 mg/L. These results indicate that acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, as adjuvants to standard care, might achieve bet -ter results in treating severe cases of COVID-19. (C) 2021 Shanghai Yueyang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

In a study conducted on a severe COVID-19 patient in Wuhan, China, the combination of manual acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine showed promising results, improving the patient's respiratory function, increasing oxygen saturation, and reducing heart rate. The use of acupuncture and herbs together as adjuvants to standard care may achieve better outcomes in treating severe cases of COVID-19.