Treatment for intractable anemia with the traditional Chinese medicines Hominis Placenta and Cervi Cornus Colla (deer antler glue)

OBJECTIVE Intractable anemia, such as aplastic anemia or that presumably associated with chronic herpes virus infections, sometimes require bone marrow transplant. We investigated the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for the treatment of intractable anemia. METHOD Placenta Hominis (PH), steam boiled and roasted, and Cervi Cornus Colla (deer antler glue) has been used in China for hundreds of years to treat anemia. After consent was obtained, we prescribed these two materials for a 74-year-old female with aplastic anemia and a 26-year-old male with presumably a virus-induced anemia. Concomitant conventional therapy was continued in both patients as prescribed by their respective attending physicians. CONCLUSION Conventional therapy with steroid hormones, immunosuppressive drugs, platelet and erythrocyte transfusions were not effective in these patients. In addition, both patients suffered from serious side effects. In two patients, ingestion of Placenta Hominis and Cervi Cornus Colla with TCM prescriptions increased the platelet and enhanced the hemoglobin concentration in several months of therapy accompanied by a dramatic improvement in quality of life. The addition to conventional therapy of PH and Cervi Cornus Colla, the latter of which is very easy to obtain, may be one of the potentially advantageous choices in case of otherwise intractable anemia.