Dysentery is a common intestinal infectious disease manifested as abdominal pain, tenesmus and diarrhea with pus and blood. Chinese medicine practice holds that the disease is due to eating cold, raw and unclean food, or through the invasion of external summer heat, damp

and epidemic toxin. All of the factors may combine together to result

in dysfunction of the larger intestine in transportation, accumulation of damp and heat and stagnation of qi and blood, further damaging the Zang-fu organs and meridians and collaterals, resulting in dysentery. In clinical practice, acute and chronic dysentery are divided. Acute dysentery includes the damp heat type manifested as more blood lesser pus stool, while the cold damp type manifested itself as more pus  and less blood, anorexia and nausea after eating. The treatment principle is to clear away heat, resolve damp, promote digestion and regulate qi and blood circulation. The points are selected from Hand-Yangming meridian mainly, i.e., Hegu (LI 4), Tianshu(ST25), Shangjuxu (ST 37) and Neiting (ST44). For severe heat syndromes, Quchi (LI 11) is added; for severe damp, Yinlingquan (SP9); and for severe cold, moxibustion. Reducing needling technique is applied. Chronic dysentery refers to persistent dysentery, weakness of qi in the middle energizer and retention of pathogenic factors. In clinical practice, the main manifestation is intermittent dysentery. The treatment principle is to tonify the spleen and stomach, and eliminate cold and damp. The main points are selected from Foot-Yangming meridian and Back-Shu points, i.e., Tianshu (ST25), Qihai (Ren 6), Zusanli (ST 36), Pishu (BL 20) and Dashangshu (BL25). Acupuncture and moxibustion are applied together. The treatments are taken as reference for acute bacillary dysentery, toxic dysentery and amebic dysentery in modem medicine.