A conceptual review of Warme Rehm in Unani Medicine with specific reference to pelvic inflammatory disease

Abstract

Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is the most common infections of female reproductive organs, which can occur in sexually active women during the reproductive age & remains an important public health problem. PID is diagnosed in more than one million women each year in United States. It is a polymicrobial infection with the most commonly implicated pathogens being C. trachomatis, N. gonorrhoea and many other aerobic and anaerobic bacteria like Gardenella vaginalis, E. coli, Streptoccoccus species etc. PID is a clinical diagnosis implying that the patient has upper genital tract infection and inflammation which ascends from the vagina and cervix. It is associated with long-term sequelae like tubal factor infertility, ectopic pregnancy and chronic pelvic pain. In classical Unani text, warme rehm (PID) is further subdivided into warme rehm har & warme rehm saudavi, warme rehm har manifests specific as well as associated symptoms due to anatomical proximity of uterus, which aid in diagnosis and if it is not treated adequately, it becomes warme rehm sulb which is difficult to treat. Various compound formulations are mentioned in Unani classical text for warme rehm possessing the properties of musaffi-e- khoon, muhallil warm, dafia’h taffun, dafia’h huma etc. This review article gives a detailed description of warme rehm including its causes, pathogenesis, diagnosis, principle of treatment in Unani system of medicine.