Swami Shraddhamayananda and A.K. Pradhan
Monk in Charge of Medical Unit at Belur Math, Ramakrishna Mission Charitable Dispensary, Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal, India
Burn injuries are frequent domestic, occupational as well as industrial injuries resulting from insignificant to life threatening lesions in the body. Burn injuries are a leading cause of morbidity worldwide and nearly 10% of these require hospitalization. Regeneration in burn injury is the crucial point which determines the outcome. Recently it has been found that the cell-signaling pathway (TLR3 activating IL6, STAT3, EDAR) can help regeneration of skin in burn injury. While many agents are found to activate the signaling pathway leading to healing in burn injury, but the repair process never simulates complete restitution of the affected part and in most of the cases it is delayed too much. Again severe skin burns usually heals with scarring leading to disability and disfigurement. Post-burn healing of skin often also accompanied by hypopigmentation, contracture, and hypertrophic changes which also contribute serious disfigurement and functional impairment as well. It is again always associated with significant psychological trauma and social isolation. Annually about 1 to 1.5 lac people get crippled and require multiple surgeries and prolonged rehabilitation. Although elastinproteins produced through the signaling pathway is quite good for burn injury in children but not so effective in adults resulting in a poorly flexible collagen scar. Although conventional treatments are much improved in recent years, however, they are beyond reach of most of these patients in developing countries due to high cost and absence of infrastructural facilities. In this study homeopathic medicines graphitis was used to treat various types of burn injuries with or without complications in 100 patients resulting complete restitution in 86 cases. In the remaining 14 cases, significant improvement was seen in 9 cases and 5 cases did not continue treatment after few visits. Although we are not definite about the mechanism of action of these medicines but they appear not only to act through the signaling pathways but also other hitherto unknown pathways.