While some turn to iced beverages amid rising temperatures, others resort to a popular folk therapy called “gua sha” (skin scraping, 刮痧), but a doctor yesterday said that gua sha could cause flesh-eating diseases and other complications.
Gua sha involves repeatedly scraping lubricated skin with smooth-edged tools to produce light bruising. The practice is believed to stimulate blood flow and treat heatstroke.
“A 40-year-old man from Taichung’s Fongyuan District (豐原) was recently rushed to an emergency department after developing bacterial infections on his inner thighs following a self-applied gua sha session,” Feng Yuan Hospital Department of Surgery director Wu Chien-ting (吳建廷) said yesterday.
Photo: Lee Chung-hsien, Taipei Times
When the man arrived at the hospital, Wu said red and swollen ulcers were found on both of his inner thighs. He also had a fever of 39°C.
Wu said the complications could have arisen because the patient used an unsterilized tool to carry out the therapy and also caused minor skin injuries in the process.
The man later developed necrotizing fasciitis — a serious bacterial skin infection that spreads quickly and can cause tissue death — and was required to undergo emergency debridement and irrigation, and was put on antibiotics.
“He regained his health and was discharged from hospital after two weeks of treatment,” Wu said.
Hospital Department of Infectious Disease director Wang Wei-yao (王唯堯) said the germs that cause necrotizing fasciitis are commonly found in the soil and can infect humans through skin wounds.
“This type of bacterial infection could result in sepsis, a severe blood infection that can lead to organ failure and death if the condition is not properly controlled,” Wang said.
Department of Chinese Medicine director Lin Ching-chung (林慶鐘) said that while gua sha is conducive to easing headaches, sore muscles and heatstroke, it cannot be practiced on injuries or dry skin, or on people with a deficiency of energy.
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