Bee Venom Pharmacopuncture Responses According to Sasang Constitution and Gender

bee venom, sweet bee venom, skin test, Sasang constitution, sexual difference Objectives: The current study was performed to com-pare the bee venom pharmacopuncture skin test re-actions among groups with different sexes and Sasang constitutions. Methods: Between July 2012 and June 2013, all 76 pa-tients who underwent bee venom pharmacopuncture skin tests and Sasang constitution diagnoses at Oriental Medicine Hospital of Sangji University were included in this study. The skin test was performed on the patient’s forearm intracutaneously with 0.05 ml of sweet bee venom (SBV) on their first visit. If the patients showed a positive response, the test was discontinued. On the other hand, if the patient showed a negative response, the test was performed on the opposite forearm intra-cutaneously with 0.05 ml of bee venom pharmacopunc-ture 25 % on the next day or the next visit. Three groups were made to compare the differences in the bee ven-om pharmacopuncture skin tests according to sexual difference and Sasang constitution: group A showed a positive response to SBV, group B showed a positive response to bee venom pharmacopuncture 25%, and group C showed a negative response on all bee venom pharmacopuncture skin tests. Fisher’s exact test was performed to evaluate the differences statistically. Results: The results of the bee venom pharmacop-uncture skin tests showed no significant differences according to Sasang constitution (P = 0.300) or sexual difference (P = 0.163). Conclusion: No significant differences on the results of bee venom pharmacopuncture skin tests were ob-served according to two factors, Sasang constitution and the sexual difference. 1