Efficacy of Dashang lepa in the Management of Vranashopha (Cellulitis): A Preliminary Clinical Study

Abstract

Acharya Sushruta has mentioned a detail description of inflammatory swelling under the heading of Vranashopha. Clinical features of Vranashopha are much resembled to inflammatory swelling like as cellulitis. Cellulitis can cause mild discomfort to severe toxaemia, which can lead to death. In such condition, only systemic drugs are in clinical use, but they are not much helpful to eradicate the acute problem. It is probably, due to lack of their local availability on the swollen area, which further leads to ischemia cell death and ultimately gangrene formation. In this way we hypothesize that drugs, which could reduce local swelling/tissue damage, may be helpful in management of inflammation. Dashang lepa (mixture of ten indigenous drugs) mixed with 1/5^th part of pure cow's ghrita (butter) was taken for external application over Vranashopha (cellulitis) in trial group. Clinical study in 20 patients of cellulitis in respect of local and generalized criteria was done. In the study, group containing Dashang lepa showed statistically highly significant (<0.01) in terms of reduction of pain, edema, erythema, tenderness and fever in the patients of cellulitis. Thus results revealed Dashang lepa is very effective against superficial inflammatory swelling.