Kobe J. Med. Sci., Vol. 61, No. 5, pp. E132-E137, 2015
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E132
Shakuyaku-kanzo-to (Shao-Yao-Gan-Cao-Tang) as Treatment of
Painful Muscle Cramps in Patients with Lumbar Spinal Stenosis and
Its Minimum Effective Dose
YUMIKO TAKAO
1,*
, YUTAKA TAKAOKA
2
, AKI SUGANO
2
,
HITOAKI SATO
1
,
YASUSHI MOTOYAMA
1
,
MIKA OHTA
2
, TAKASHI NISHIMOTO
3,4
and SATOSHI MIZOBUCHI
1
1
Division of Anesthesiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine,
Kobe, Japan;
2
Division of Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, Japan;
3
Division of Kampo Medicine, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, Japan;
4
Nishimoto Clinic, Nishinomiya, Japan
*Corresponding author
Received 25 August 2015/ Accepted 14 December 2015
Key words: Shakuyaku-kanzo-to, Muscle cramps,
Minimum effective dose, Kampo medicine, Lumbar
spinal stenosis
Shakuyaku-kanzo-to (Shao-Yao-Gan-Cao-Tang) is a Kampo medicine, which is known to be effective
against muscle cramps as well as crampy pain in the gastrointestinal smooth muscle and skeletal muscle.
However, glycyrrhizin in this medicine also causes adverse drug reactions such as hypokalemia,
hypertension, and edema. We analyzed the therapeutic efficacy of Shakuyaku-kanzo-to for painful muscle
cramps associated with lumbar spinal stenosis and clarified its minimum effective dose.
58 patients with lumbar spinal stenosis and painful muscle cramps were included. We evaluated the
therapeutic efficacy of Shakuyaku-kanzo-to (n=16) comparing with eperisone hydrochloride (n=14). We
