TCM Case Studies: External Medicine

TCM Case Studies: External Medicine, one of the International Standard Library of Chinese Medicine TCM Case Studies series volumes, presents the specialty branch of TCM concerned with diagnosis and treatment of conditions that affect the body’s surface, unlike TCM Internal Medicine whereby the focus is on internal organ systems. External medicine, or wai ke, refers to conditions that can be seen by the eye or palpated directly such as traumatic injuries, skin diseases, breast lumps, hemorrhoids, male genital problems and so on.

Chapters in the text are devoted to 60 case studies describing the diagnosis and treatment of sores and ulcerations, breast conditions, goiter, skin lesions, sexually transmitted diseases, anorectal conditions, male urogenital conditions, peripheral vascular diseases and other external conditions, with 92 external conditions examined in total. Internal therapies, medicinal formulas, external applications, and acupuncture treatments are provided along with both Chinese pinyin and characters for easy reference.

Commentary and discussion, provided by the Western co-author, serve to compare, corroborate, and contrast the various approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Students of Chinese medicine will find the study questions and answers at the end of each chapter to be a useful aid for exam preparation and continuing study.