title: An ayurvedic approach in the management of Guillain-Barre syndrome: A case study.
abstract: Guillain-Barre syndrome is an acute, frequently severe and fulminant polyradiculopathy that is autoimmune in nature. Guillain Barre syndrome is a rare disorder that causes immune systems to attack peripheral nervous system (PNS). A 46 year old male patient, presenting with sudden onset, complete paralysis of all four limbs (quadriplegia), unable to walk, stand, sit, difficulty in deglutition (dysphagia) and dysarthia, was having foley's catheter and Ryle's Tube brought by relative to Out Door Patient Department (OPD) of Government Ayurvedic Hospital, Nagpur; He was provisionally diagnosed as subacute sensory motor paraplegia. Previously patient admitted and treated in Government Medical College (GMC) Nagpur but did not show any sign of improvement so patient was admitted and treated with Ayurvedic treatment for about 50 days. As per Ayurvedic classics, this condition can be correlated with sarvāṅ gagatavātavyādhi (~vāta disorder affecting all parts of the body), which is apatarpaṇa in nature (~diseases with deprived nourishment of body tissue) preceded by jvara (~(H/O fever before onset of GBS). Hence, the principle of treatment is santarpaṇa cikitsā (~nourishing treatment). Santarpaṇa (~nourishing treatment) includes bahyopakramas (~nourishing external treatment modalities), such as abhyaṅga (~oleation therapy) and ṣaṣṭikaśālipiṇḍasveda (~sudation using of hot and processed ṣaṣṭika rice), karmabasti (~medicated enema) śirodhārā (gentle pouring of medicated liquid over forehead) and jvaraghna cikitsā (~treatment of fever) using various Ayurvedic herbomineral compounds. Remarkable results were observed in the form of improvement in the muscle power from zero to five of all four limbs with improvement in speech. There was no difficulty post treatment in deglutition, sitting, standing and walking; and now patient has near to normal movements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kayachikitsa, Government Ayurved College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakanekar
authors.affiliation: Department of Kayachikitsa, Government Ayurved College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Sunanda
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhople
authors.affiliation: Department of Kayachikitsa, Government Ayurved College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Harshad
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gulhane
authors.affiliation: Department of Kayachikitsa, Government Ayurved College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Suraj
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rathod
authors.affiliation: Department of Kayachikitsa, Government Ayurved College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Jayant
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gulhane
authors.affiliation: Department of Kayachikitsa, Government Ayurved College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Pravin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonde
keywords: Abhyaṇga; GBS; Karma Basti; Śhirodhārā; ṣaṣṭikashali Pinda Sveda