[TCM] phlebolith

[Al Stone]

On Sep 23, 2004, at 1:42 PM, Enzo Blasco wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>  
> I have a 35  years old male patient with three very small hidroceles 
> in the left side of his scrotum. Also a couple of his bloob vessels on 
> the right side are very dilated and one of them contains a phlebolith, 
> (a small calcification, about a grain of rice size).
>  
> I prescribed him Wu Ling San + Gui Zhi Fu Ling Wan. I wasn't quite 
> sure of the idea of calcified mass. I thought of it as a phlegm nodule 
> mass.

Generally yes, though sometimes as in the case with kidney or gall 
stones we can call it damp-heat or even yin deficiency.  For hard 
masses, I would differentiate between the following:

damp-heat (heat injures the yin and damp causing it to congeal into a 
hard mass)

yin deficiency (yin thickens as it dries, congeals into a hard mass)

blood stagnation (blood stagnates, thickens, congeals into a hard mass)

phlegm stagnation (phlegm stagnates, thickens, congeals into a hard 
mass)

Another option is Blood and Phlegm stagnation for which Gui Zhi Fu Ling 
Wan is barking up the right tree.

These different pathologies can be easily differentiated by a tongue 
appearance.

damp-heat: thick yellow coating, possibly limited to the rear of the 
tongue, though this is quite common, not sure how much weight I'd give 
it for that reason.

yin deficiency: scanty coating, red body color

blood stagnation: purple body color

phlegm stagnation: thick coating

Another option is Blood and Phlegm stagnation: purple body color with 
thick coating.

I'd also have your patient check in with a urologist, to rule out a 
testicular cancer.

-al.

--
Al Stone, L.Ac.
Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
-Adlai Stevenson