Gu’s surgery was founded by Gu Yunyan. The second-generation Gu Shiaoyan was known as the “King of Boils” and was known as the “Three Shiaos of Shanghai” along with Shi Shiaoshan, a famous doctor of wound medicine, and Chen Shiaobao, a famous doctor of gynecology. The third generation, Gu Bohua, is the most outstanding successor and developer of Gu’s surgery, and the founder of modern Chinese medicine surgery. In addition to Gu Nai-fang, the fourth generation also includes Lu Deming, Ma Shaoyao, Tang Hanjun, Zhu Peiting, Lu Jingen, Gu Naiqiang and Gu Naifen. The fifth generation of the lineage includes Cao Yongqing, Chen Hongfeng, Li Yongmei, Que Huafa, Liu Sheng, and Zhang Jing.
Since the 1980s, Gu’s surgery has been listed as a national key discipline, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Shanghai Key Discipline. This has established Gu’s surgery as a leader in the modern academic world of TCM surgery.
Gu’s surgery adopts a combination of external and internal treatment, and is effective in treating sore diseases, breast diseases, thyroid diseases, skin diseases, anorectal diseases, peripheral vascular diseases, and acute abdominal diseases such as biliary tract infections using Chinese medicine.
1.From sores and ulcers to miscellaneous skin diseases
Gu Bohua, my father’s clinical practice, focused on sores and ulcers in the early days, and was especially famous for his treatment of boils and yellow sores.
Gu’s surgery believed that “sores are shaped on the outside but have their roots on the inside”. In Chinese medical literature, sores and ulcers refer to purulent diseases on the body surface caused by various pathogenic factors attacking the body. Most of the sores occur on the skin, flesh, tendons, veins and bones of the body surface, and generally have relatively obvious external manifestations, but are closely related to the dysfunction of the internal organs.
Sores and ulcers are mostly identified from local lesions, with local symptoms as the focus of identification, but must not be isolated to local symptoms as the basis, but from the overall concept, a comprehensive understanding, analysis, judgment, the combination of local and systemic, external manifestations and internal internal lesions, comprehensive reference, identification of the cause, to seize the essence of the disease, in order to cure the disease to seek the root.
If the sore is pale red and not fresh, the pus is thin, the new muscle is not born, and the healing is slow, accompanied by a lack of color, fatigue, etc., if we start with the local sore surface alone and use drugs for muscle growth and sore closure, we cannot achieve better results, but we should consider the whole body; “pus is made of qi and blood”. The growth of muscle and flesh depends on sufficient qi and blood in order to easily close the mouth. Therefore, internal administration of prescriptions that supplement qi and blood, strengthen the spleen and stomach, and support the growth of muscle can accelerate the growth of muscle and close the mouth of the sore.
In a large number of clinical practices, my father, Gu Bohua, summed up the experience of adjusting yin and yang, nourishing yin and clearing heat, and treating various surgical and dermatological diseases. He often used raw earth, xuan ginseng, maitong, dendrobium and turtle board. For the treatment of head gangrene, he adds Ziziphiopogon and Sempervivum to clear heat and detoxify the toxin; for the treatment of hair red furuncle, he adds Danshen, Angelica and Curcuma to invigorate blood and remove silt; for the treatment of stable lupus erythematosus, he adds Astragalus, Huaiyang, Xianling spleen and Lock Yang to strengthen the spleen and tonify the kidney.
2.Change expensive medicine to cheap medicine
My father, Gu Bohua, used to say, “Ulcer doctors cannot do without external treatment for one day” and “Surgery differs from internal medicine in that both internal and external treatment are important.” He inherited the traditional external treatment method of Chinese medicine, but also had many innovations. For example, in the treatment of skin diseases, he created the hot baking therapy to treat neurodermatitis and chronic eczema, which improved the efficacy.
Gu’s surgical medicine has always been known as “convenient, experimental, inexpensive” and light, prescriptions with a maximum of only 11-12 flavors, the dosage is mostly 6-9 grams, without or less use of rare drugs, if cheap drugs can achieve curative effect, will never use expensive drugs. This is also the Gu’s surgical principle of medicine, “the use of medicine as the use of soldiers, the use of soldiers is precious precision, the theory and method of prescriptions and drugs, know the finger, you can curate four two dial a thousand jin.”
Through the accumulation of long-term practice, my father, Gu Bohua, summed up Qing Dai Paste, Chong He Paste, Red Oil Paste, White Jade Paste, Anti-Hemorrhoid Paste, Qing Dai Paste, Qing Shuu Mouth Paste, Ping Piao Piao Paste, Qi San Dan, Upside Down Paste Lotion, San Huang Lotion, Scutellaria Disinfection Drink, Yi Qi To Poison Tang, Plus and Minus Gua Bao Burdock Soup, Xiao Yang He Tang, Mumps Dissipation Formula, Cool Blood and Clear Lung Drink, Intestinal Carbuncle Formula, Water Hernia Internal Medicine Formula, Jin Hong Tablets, Qing Jie Tablets, Fu A series of famous prescriptions and experimental prescriptions such as Jin Hong Tablets, Qing Xie Tablets, Fu Huang Tablets, etc.
3.Research and development of acne cream, internal and external use of acne
I specialize in Chinese medicine dermatology, especially in the treatment of acne, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, flat warts and urticaria.
After the establishment of the Shanghai Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I came to Shanghai from Anhui Province and established the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Dermatology. Over the past ten years, the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Dermatology has gained some fame, especially in the treatment of acne, psoriasis, chronic eczema and other dermatological diseases with Chinese herbal medicine.
In the field of acne treatment, I have summarized the treatment method of internal and external use + TCM inversion on the basis of Gu’s famous surgical prescriptions and experimental prescriptions.
When treating acne, the first step is to identify the internal causes of acne.
I had a patient who was 25 years old and late married when he first came to see me. I happened to be at the Shanghai Taikundang East Hall Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Clinic. When I saw her, she had papules and pustules on her face for seven or eight years and had been treated in other hospitals. She had been taking oral tetracycline, zinc sulfate and Chinese herbs, and washed with sulfur and furnace glycolite externally, with no significant improvement.
After looking and smelling, it was found that she had oily face, erythema of about 6*6cm size on both cheeks, dense chestnut and mung bean-sized papules, pustules, blackheads and chestnut-sized depressed scars; the rash was not related to menstruation and was especially severe when the stool was dry. She is not addicted to spicy and oily food. She has a red tongue with thin coating and counted pulse.
The rash is caused by heat accumulated in the spleen and stomach and fumigated. Treatment advocates diarrhea of the lungs to clear heat and detoxify the body, and the use of Chinese herbal inverted film.
First, we will cleanse the face with cleanser and then apply homemade acne cream to the affected area. Then, the herbal inversion is started. This stimulates the acne cream’s blood-activating effect, promotes skin metabolism, regulates vasoconstriction, and enhances drug absorption, which improves the efficacy and achieves healing.
At the same time as the external medication, I instructed the patient to use a decoction of chrysanthemum as a tea substitute to achieve the goal of both internal and external treatment.
After 20 days, the patient had her first follow-up visit. After 3 visits, the papules and pustules disappeared, leaving a large number of depressed scars. To consolidate the efficacy, I instructed him to apply the mask once a week.
Two months later, the follow-up found that the skin pigmentation was significantly reduced and the skin damage disappeared, with slightly old depressed scars.
After another two-month follow-up, the patient’s cheeks returned to normal skin color, with slightly old depressed scars.
4, treatment of skin diseases, to identify the “taboo”
In recent years, some students have followed the essence of Gu’s surgical treatment, such as Zhang Kuang Yu. There are also some students who follow me to copy prescriptions and organize information for me, such as Liu Lehong.
According to Chinese medicine, the spleen and stomach are the essence of the posterior, the source of Qi and blood biochemistry, Qi and blood are the essence of sores and ulcers, and pus is transformed by Qi and blood. Gu’s surgery concluded that the spleen and stomach and the prevalence of qi and blood are closely related to the occurrence, development, changes and smooth transformation of sores and ulcers.
I tell my students this. When dealing with patients, I also make an extra effort to exhort this point.