Clinical observation on the treatment of chronic severe hepatitis B by retention enema with Huchang Jiedu Decoction.
OBJECTIVE
To observe the efficacy of retention enema with Huchang Jiedu Decoction (, HJD) in treating chronic severe hepatitis B (CSHB).


METHODS
Sixty patients of CSHB were equally randomized into the treated group and the control group. Both groups were treated with conventional integrative medicine, but to patients in the treated group, retention enema with HJD was given in addition, once every day for 3 weeks. The dominant symptoms, physical signs, and related biochemical indices, as well as the incidence of complications in patients before and after treatment, were observed.


RESULTS
Good therapeutic effects were shown in the treated group, with a total effective rate better than that in the control group (83.3% versus 60.0%, P<0.05), superior in terms of lowering alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin (TBil), globulin (Glb), and endotoxin (ET) levels and increasing prothrombin activity (PTA), total cholesterol (TC), and calcium (Ca) levels, as well as eliminating ascites and preventing hepatic encephalopathy (P<0.05); especially in treating middle/early stage patients with Chinese medicine syndrome differentiated as water-toxin accumulation pattern.


CONCLUSION
Retention enema with HJD is surely effective in treating CSHB, and its primary mechanism may be related to the mitigation of enterogenous endotoxemia.