Haemangioma Successfully Treated in a Bitch with Mercurius solubilis: A Case Report

Abstract

Conventional medical therapy for haemangioma usually consists of corticosteroids through oral administration, intralesional injection or topical application. Recently, propranolol has demonstrated to offer advantages because its therapeutic efficacy is comparable and fewer adverse effects are observed. This benign vascular tumour is not always so complicated to have to be removed surgically and many others remit without treatment. However, sometimes the unexpected can happen and evolve unfavourably. For these situations, homeopathy can also be evaluated. Here is a case report of an elderly bitch that developed a haemangioma on the pad of the left fifth toe. The lesion increased in size after applying a corticosteroid ointment and became an infected wound with suppuration when the bitch bit it (self-mutilation). A homeopathic approach to the treatment was proposed. Complete remission of the vascular tumour and improvement of behavioural and physical complaints was achieved with a high dilution of Mercurius solubilis. The homeopathic remedy Phosphorus, a phytotherapic ointment of Calendula officinalis, and the application of topical antibiotics did not have the efficacy of the previous one. Although homeopathy does not yet have a specific mechanism of action for each remedy, the pathogenesis of M. solubilis is compatible with a negative regulation of glutamine synthetase. Given that it has been shown that ultra-dilutions can stimulate gene expression, it is theoretically hypothesised here that Mercurius could stimulate glutamate-ammonia ligase gene, which expresses the aforementioned enzyme, and solve or improve diseases whose symptoms are due to their underexpression or inhibition (at gene and protein level). Hence, the aim of this article is to show the results of homeopathy in the clinical practice and to propose a line of research on the mechanism of action of the remedies.