Medical news on July 23: Taking traditional medicine to treat illness, the tumor does not decrease, but increases
There is currently no scientific evidence to prove that traditional medicine can shrink kidney tumors. Patients need to have surgery to remove the tumor.
Renal cysts are very common.
The huge tumor in her left kidney pressed down on Ms. T., causing her abdomen to swell as if she were 6 months pregnant. Ms. NTT (40 years old, Long An) went to a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for a check-up due to abdominal distension. The ultrasound doctor discovered a 20cm cyst in her kidney and recommended laparoscopic surgery to remove the cyst, but she refused because she was afraid of surgery.
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| Doctors are operating on a patient with a cyst. |
Instead, she bought traditional medicine to treat herself at home. She took traditional medicine regularly twice a day, morning and afternoon. After about a year of taking traditional medicine, her kidney tumor did not decrease but grew larger, causing her to feel heavy, painful, uncomfortable, and her belly was as big as if she was 6 months pregnant, so she decided to go to the hospital to seek treatment.
Specialist II Pham Thanh Truc, Department of Urology, Center for Urology - Nephrology - Andrology, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, had Ms. T. have a computed tomography (CT) scan, which showed that her left kidney had a very large cyst, occupying almost the entire abdominal cavity. This was the reason why her abdomen was enlarged with pain and discomfort.
Dr. Truc said that there is currently no scientific evidence to prove that traditional medicine can shrink kidney tumors. Patients need to have surgery to remove the tumor.
Dr. Thanh Truc said that kidney cysts are fluid-filled sacs that develop on the surface of the kidneys. Kidney cysts can appear in one or both kidneys. A kidney can develop one or more cysts. Most kidney cysts are benign, very few cases become malignant.
Renal cysts are very common, and their incidence increases with age. It is estimated that about 25% of people aged 40 and older and 50% of people aged 50 and older have kidney cysts. The size of kidney cysts can increase over time.
Initial symptoms of kidney cysts are vague or absent. Patients often accidentally discover kidney cysts when doing imaging tests in the abdomen such as ultrasound, CT scan, MRI... When the size of the cyst is large, it will compress other organs, causing the patient to feel pain, discomfort, heaviness, and a large abdomen.
Most small benign renal cysts do not require treatment. When the cyst is too large, causing compression of internal organs in the abdomen, the doctor will prescribe surgery to remove the entire cyst. In addition, renal cysts can also be treated by aspiration, but due to the high recurrence rate, this is rarely used.
Kidney cysts usually do not affect health. Large cysts can cause complications such as infection, urinary obstruction, rupture, and bleeding.
Doctor Truc recommends that people with kidney cysts need to follow the doctor's instructions and follow the treatment. Absolutely do not buy Western medicine, traditional medicine, or herbal water to treat yourself at home.
Medical examination and treatment expenses from health insurance fund increased
According to Vietnam Social Security, in the first 6 months of the year, the average national usage of the Health Insurance Medical Examination and Treatment Fund was estimated at 50.6%. Notably, along with the increase in the number of health insurance medical examinations and treatments, the average cost for each medical examination and treatment in the first 6 months of 2024 also increased by about 8.6% compared to the same period in 2023...
Head of the Health Insurance Policy Implementation Department (Vietnam Social Security) Le Van Phuc said that in the first 6 months of the year, more than 88 million people nationwide went for health insurance examination and treatment, an increase of 6.3% over the same period last year, the rate of inpatients was 9.98%, an increase of 0.08% over the same period last year.
In the first six months of 2024, medical examination and treatment facilities requested payment from the Health Insurance Fund of VND 66,299 billion, an increase of 16.3% over the same period last year.
Regarding cost structure, it is worth noting that the cost of beds and medical supplies is taking up a large proportion and is on the rise.
It is estimated that in the first 6 months of the year, the average usage of the Health Insurance Examination and Treatment Fund nationwide is 50.6%. Meanwhile, according to the estimate for the whole year of 2024, with provinces having expenditures in the first 6 months accounting for 48% of the estimate, the possibility of exceeding the estimate for the whole year of 2024 is very high if there are no strong and drastic cost control measures.
According to statistics on the Health Insurance Appraisal Information System, in the first 5 months of 2024, the Social Insurance agency automatically and proactively rejected the amount of money requested to pay for medical examination and treatment costs under health insurance that were not in accordance with regulations after appraisal work, which was 209.7 billion VND (equal to 0.28% of the total payment requests)...
However, according to Head of the Department Le Van Phuc, the drastic solutions and directions of Vietnam Social Security have brought positive results in controlling health insurance examination and treatment costs.
Accordingly, the number of health insurance examinations and treatments in June compared to May nationwide decreased by 9%, the number of health insurance examinations and treatments in all provinces decreased. The number of health insurance examinations and treatments paid in June nationwide decreased by nearly 8%, all provinces decreased.
A quick report from provincial social insurance agencies in May 2024 showed that most provinces implemented cost warning and control activities under the direction of Vietnam Social Security. The number of medical examination and treatment expenses paid by health insurance in June decreased by nearly 8% nationwide, all provinces decreased.
In particular, Thai Binh and Ha Giang had the highest reduction rate of more than 15%; Hai Duong decreased by 14.8%; Kien Giang, Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh, Ha Nam decreased by more than 13%. The average cost per medical examination and treatment nationwide from March to May all tended to decrease gradually, especially in May, only 3 provinces had an average cost increase of more than 1%.
Deputy General Director of Vietnam Social Security Nguyen Duc Hoa shared that the goal of controlling health insurance examination and treatment costs of the Vietnam social security sector is to ensure that costs are optimized, thereby ensuring resources to best protect the rights of participants. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly implement discipline and order in this activity.
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