Segmental Therapy

2 Segmental Therapy

Head and Mackenzie observed that diseased organs regularly produce reactions and changes in certain clearly defined skin and subcutaneous zones. From this they deduced that there must be a relationship between any given organ and certain areas on the body’s surface, the cutaneovisceral reflex channels. They found that the human body can be divided into thirty segments (p. 12). Vogler and Krauss discovered other relationships, between bones and periosteum on the one hand and organs on the other, the osteovisceral reflex channels. The fact that a diseased organ can be positively influenced by skin irritation has long been known to empirical medicine. Physical medicine makes use of this empirical knowledge; treatment by means of skin irritation such as Ponndorf’s and Baunscheidt’s vaccinations, moxa, cupping, Kneipp therapy etc., has become a standard component of modern physical medicine.

In neural therapy according to Huneke we know three possible means of producing a segmental effect:

1. Injection directly to the painful site: accurately placed procaine or lidocaine injections are effective in treating painful disorders in muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, joints, and nerves; for contusion, hematomas, abrasions, painful scars, and all forms of traumatic damage (see Quaddle therapy, p. 84).

2. Painful areas can be treated effectively by paravertebral procaine or lidocaine injections in the relevant segment.

3. Procaine or lidocaine treatment of the sympathetic chain and its ganglia. Important ganglia in neural therapy are: the lumbar sympathetic chain; the ciliary, Gasserian, sphenopalatine, and stellate ganglia; and the upper and middle cervical ganglia.

For the lower extremities, in addition to the injection to the sympathetic chain, we favor that to the root of the sciatic nerve and an epidural or presacral infiltration. If segmental therapy produces no marked improvement in the patient’s condition, the physician must always bear in mind the possibility of an interference field (p. 33).

The Segments of the Body (Head’s Zones)

There are thirty segments in the human body:

C1–C8	Cervical segments
T1–T12	Thoracic segments
L1–L5	Lumbar segments
S1–S5	Sacral segments

Fig. 2.1

Internal Organs and Their Related Pain and Reactive Segments

Fig. 2.2

Summary of the Principal Injection Points in the Segmental Treatment of the Disorders of the:

Heart

Lungs

Liver and gallbladder

Stomach

Segmental Therapy in Cardiac Disorders

Fig. 2.3

Standard points

Points where reactions are frequently obtained

Segmental reactions frequent

The basic treatment in all cardiac disorders that fail to respond clearly to strophantin and other glucosides is an intravenous injection into the left cubital vein (p. 194).

In addition, set two to four quaddles (pp. 190, 191) by the side of the sternum over thefirst to third intercostal spaces, and a further quaddle in the angle formed by the lower left thoracic margin and the xiphoid process.

The reflex zones of the heart are on the left side of the chest; they extend from the left of the sternum to the left clavicle and over the left shoulder to the left side of the neck.