Abstract:
Objective To investigate the potential benefits of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic benzene poisoning.
Methods A total of 49 patients with chronic benzene poisoning characterized by spleen-kidney yang deficiency, admitted to the Guangzhou Twelfth People's Hospital in 2023, were enrolled and randomly assigned to Group A (combined therapy with TCM-Western medicine, n = 25) or Group B (therapy with Western medicine alone, n = 24). The two groups were compared in terms of TCM syndrome scores, immune indicators, and bone marrow function abstracted from clinical records and quality of life scores surveyed by medical records and the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36).
Results Before treatment, all 49 patients had mild to moderate benzene poisoning without severe bone marrow involvement, although both leukocyte and neutrophil counts were lower than reference values. The median levels of IgE, IL-6, and IL-8 were 414.2 IU/mL, 97.5 pg/mL, and 2 213.7 pg/mL, respectively. After treatment, IgE levels decreased significantly in both groups (P < 0.05). The mean of the total TCM syndrome score of all patients was significantly lower after treatment (P < 0.05), with Group A showing greater improvements in symptoms such as pale complexion and fatigue compared with Group B(P < 0.05). After treatment, Group A demonstrated significant improvements across all SF-36 dimensions (P < 0.001), whereas Group B showed improvements in only some dimensions (P < 0.05).
Conclusions Combination therapy of TCM and Western medicine may be superior to Western medicine alone in improving TCM syndrome manifestations and enhancing quality of life in patients with chronic benzene poisoning characterized by spleen-kidney yang deficiency, while Western medicine alone showed limited improvement in overall quality of life.