Trauma
Trauma, includes gunshot wounds, wounds by sharp metal things, injury from
tumbling and fighting, injury from bearing too much weight, burns, scalding, cold in.juries, and bites by insects or animals.
Gunshot wounds, wounds by sharp metal things, injury from tumbling and fight-
ing, and injury from bearing too much weight can cause blood stasis, swelling, pain,
bleeding, tendon injury, or fracture and luxation. In serious injuries of the viscera, excessive bleeding will appear, which can cause critical symptoms such as coma, convulsion, depletion of yang, and collapse.
Burns and scalding are often caused by touching very hot things, boiling water and oil, or other objects with very high temperature. Mild burn and scald lead to injury of the skin, with the injured skin area becoming flushed, swollen, hot and painful, or with the injured skin area becoming dry, blistered, and extremely painful. Serious burn and scald can lead to injury of the muscle, tendon and bone, causing insensibility to pain; the surface of the injured part can become leathery with wax-white or dark brown or black color. Critical burn and scald involve a large area of the body. Besides the local clinical signs, they cause unendurable pain, internal "fire-poisoning," and loss of body fluid,leading to restlessness, fever, dry mouth, thirst, scanty urine, or even death.
Cold injury is common in winter in the north of China. It is a kind of general or local injury of the body by low temperature. The lower the temperature and/or the longer the exposure to the cold is, the more serious the cold injury will be. Being a yin evil, cold is liable to hurt yang-qi. When predominant, the cold-evil can impair yang-qi by causing the loss of its warming function and its function of promoting the blood circulation. So general cold injury can bring forth such symptoms as shiver, gradual decline of the body temperature, pale complexion, green-purplish lips and tongue and nails, insensitivity,mental tiredness, lack of strength, or lethargy, weak breathing, and a slow and thready pulse. If a patient of general cold injury gets no treatment, he may die.
Local cold injury mostly happens to the hands, feet, ear edge, nose tip, and cheeks;it the early stage, there will be stagnation of qi and blood which affects the warming maintenance and nutrition of the injured area, causing the skin to be pale in color, and reciting in a cold and numb sensation; in the later stage, the skin will become blue-purplish, swollen, itching, painful, hot, or bulgy with big or small blisters which may cause infection after bursting. Regarding the cold injury, General Treatise on Causes and wymptoms of Diseases says: "When the skin gets injured in wind and snow in cold winter, the blood and qi will become stagnated and then, painful and swollen chilblain will arise."
Wounds by insects and animals include bites by poisonous snakes, beasts, and rabid dogs, or stings by scorpions, bees, or wasps. In a mild case, wound by insect and beast is only a local problem with swelling, pain and bleeding. In a serious case, the wound will reach the viscera, and may even cause death if excessive amounts of blood are lost. A bite by a poisonous snake produces general poisoning symptoms, and death due to poisoning will happen if timely treatment is unavailable. A bite by a rabid dog at the early stage only causes local pain and bleeding. However, after the healing of the open wound and a incubation period, such symptoms as restlessness, phobia, gnathospasmus, convulsion, fear of water and wind will appear.
