Table_2_Case Report: Ninjin'yoeito May Improve Quality of Life After Hospitalization for Acute Illness in Patients With Frailty.DOCX

Introduction: Frail patients are susceptible to a large number of diseases, and frailty particularly is known to develop after acute illness. No conventional drugs are known to prevent such exacerbation after acute illness. However, traditional Japanese medicine, Kampo, is thought to confer efficacious energy and nutritional supplements and serve to improve malaise after acute illness. Ninjin'yoeito is a representative Kampo medicine for such situation.
Cases: We describe three frail patients hospitalized for acute illness who started taking ninjin'yoeito at the time of discharge.
Case 1: An 87-year-old man admitted with acute prostatitis complicated by hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). His 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) score, which is representative of total quality of life and comprises eight components, showed consistent improvements after 4 and 12 weeks of ninjin'yoeito administration, especially for body pain (BP; scores from 41 to 51 and 100, respectively), social function (SF; 50, 100, 100), and mental health (MH; 75, 75, 90).
Case 2: A 65-year-old man admitted with urinary tract infection complicated by primary sclerosing cholangitis and COPD. All SF-36 component scores showed improvement 12 weeks later: physical function (PF; 70–95), role physical (RP; 75–100), BP (72–84), general health (GH; 45–52), vitality (VT; 37.5–75), SF 75–100, role emotional (RE; 75–100), and MH (70–90).
Case 3: An 80-year-old man admitted for pneumonia complicated with hypertension. SF-36 score was improved 4 weeks later for RP (68.8–100), BP (52–61), GH (52–72), VT (43.8–62.5), SF (37.5–100), and RE (58.3–91.7).
Conclusion: Patients with frailty often have a worsened SF-36 score after discharge following acute illness, but the score may be improved by taking ninjin'yoeito.

引言：虚弱患者易罹患多种疾病，且已知急性疾病后会出现虚弱症状加重。目前尚无常规药物可预防急性疾病后的此类病情恶化。然而，日本传统医学汉方（Kampo）被认为可提供有效的能量与营养支持，有助于改善急性疾病后的全身不适。人参养荣汤（Ninjin'yoeito）便是针对此类场景的代表性汉方方剂。

病例：本文报告3例因急性疾病住院的虚弱患者，均于出院时开始服用人参养荣汤（Ninjin'yoeito）。
病例1：1例87岁男性患者，因急性前列腺炎住院，合并高血压与慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）。其36条目简明健康调查问卷（36-Item Short Form Health Survey, SF-36）是反映整体生活质量的评估工具，包含8个维度。服用人参养荣汤4周及12周后，SF-36评分均出现持续改善，其中躯体疼痛（Body Pain, BP）、社会功能（Social Function, SF）及精神健康（Mental Health, MH）维度改善尤为显著：BP评分从41分别升至51与100，SF评分从50升至100、100，MH评分从75升至75、90。
病例2：1例65岁男性患者，因尿路感染住院，合并原发性硬化性胆管炎与慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）。服用人参养荣汤12周后，所有SF-36维度评分均出现改善：躯体功能（Physical Function, PF）从70升至95，躯体角色功能（Role Physical, RP）从75升至100，BP从72升至84，总体健康（General Health, GH）从45升至52，活力（Vitality, VT）从37.5升至75，SF从75升至100，情绪角色功能（Role Emotional, RE）从75升至100，MH从70升至90。
病例3：1例80岁男性患者，因肺炎住院，合并高血压。服用人参养荣汤4周后，SF-36评分中RP（68.8升至100）、BP（52升至61）、GH（52升至72）、VT（43.8升至62.5）、SF（37.5升至100）及RE（58.3升至91.7）维度均出现改善。

结论：虚弱患者在急性疾病出院后，其SF-36评分常出现恶化，但服用人参养荣汤可改善该评分。