A Potential Therapeutic Approach According to Traditional Thai Medicine Theory for Post-COVID-19 Syndrome Treatment: An Observational Retrospective Clinical Study.

BACKGROUND

Most post-COVID-19 patients had physiological health problems, which differed for each patient. The potential treatment for post-COVID-19 syndrome must require multi-disciplinary approaches that focus on individualized treatment. Therefore, traditional Thai Medicine (TTM) clinical practice guidelines for post-COVID-19 treatment are developed by the Traditional Thai Medicine Hospital, Prince of Songkla University, to care for post-COVID-19 patients.

OBJECTIVE

This current study aimed to investigate the effect of the guidelines on post-COVID-19 patient's physical health.

METHODS

This research was a retrospective clinical study, carried out from June 2022 to July 2022.

SETTING

The study was conducted at the Traditional Thai Medicine Hospital, Prince of Songkla University, and La Flora Khao Lak TTM clinic, Thailand.

PARTICIPANTS

Data (n=17) were collected from the medical record. They were included if they met the following criteria: patients were more than 18 years old, had a medical history of COVID-19 disease, had fully recovered from the disease (ATK for COVID-19 is negative) at least a week before starting the guideline, and had complete medical information such as post-COVID-19 symptoms, vital signs, pain score, cough severity score, and quality of life examination.

INTERVENTION: Approaches for post-COVID-19 treatment included herbal Thai medicine recipes, Thai massage, herbal steam inhalation, herbal hot steam, herbal hot water immersion, acupressure massage for breathing stimulation, and a breathing exercise. All procedures were applied for 7 days continually or until they have recovered.

PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The effects of TTM approaches on the symptoms of post-COVID-19 patients on pain score, quality of life, cough severity were measured using a visual analog score (VAS), SF-36 questionnaire, and cough severity index (CSI), respectively.

RESULTS

The average duration time of post-COVID-19 syndrome was 25.76 days, and the most common symptom was muscle pain/stress (10; 71.43%). Yahom-Navakot (6; 42.86%) is the most common recipe used for the treatment. Interestingly, the pain score was significantly reduced by 3 days of the treatment (4.88±2.03 vs 2.29±2.08 ). Moreover, the cough severity index (12.86±11.55 vs 3.31±6.38) was significantly lessened by 7 days of the treatment. Remarkably, most symptoms vanished entirely after 7 days of the intervention, leading to a better quality of life for the patients (53.24±22.15 vs 65.59±23.64).

CONCLUSIONS

The TTM clinical practice guideline for treating post-COVID-19 syndrome effectively improved the overall physical health capacity and symptoms associated with post-COVID-19 syndrome. Therefore, the implementation of this guideline, together with other approaches, could strengthen the treatment for post-COVID-19 to be more effective.