Most common manifestation of liver dysfunction is ascites and most common cause of ascites is liver disease. Ascites is the accumulation of fluid in the peritoneum. Inspite of advanced medical facilities, still, there is no sure treatment which cures a patient of ascites totally. The modern treatments only provide provisional relief with time dependent recurrence but, the fluid gets collected in the abdominal cavity repeatedly. In such case, Ayurvedic treatment gives relief without any side effect, in such cases and can be correlated with Jalodara (ascites) which mentioned in Ayurveda medical science. Diet restriction, medicinal treatment and surgical procedure are mentioned in Samhita. Diet restriction is an important feature of the management of this condition. A 46-year-old female came to outpatient department with anorexia, abdominal distension, vomiting after meal, respiratory distress etc. She was given Nitya Virechana (daily therapeutic purgation) with Abhayadi Modaka, cow's urine, SharapunkhaSwarasa, PunarnavaKwatha, etc. and restricted diet plan for 3 months. After 3 months, a significant improvement was noted in all the symptoms of the patient. Hb% was also increased from 7.5% to 11.2% and erythrocyte sedimentation rate and serum creatinine were decreased from 35 mm/h to 10 mm/h and 1.2 mg/dl to 0.9 mg/dl respectively. Ultrasonographic findings also showed improvement in comparison with previous report. Hence, it was concluded that Ayurvedic management gives relief in ascites.
Keywords: Ascites; Ayurveda; Jalodara; Nitya Virechana; diet restriction.