Abstract:

Chronic cough and short stature both impose significant psychological burdens on the children and their family members. However, few scholars have explored the connection between the two. This paper systematically investigates the intrinsic link between chronic cough and short stature in children, based on Zhang Zhongjing's theory from Jingyue Quanshu that "Prolonged damage to the five Zang-organs eventually affects the kidney" and combined with modern experimental research. The core pathogenesis in traditional Chinese medicine is that prolonged coughing in children with chronic cough injures the lungs, which in turn affects the spleen and eventually impacts the kidneys, leading to bone marrow depletion and weakened bones and resulting in short stature. Modern medicine believes that the children are affected by chronic cough or chronic inflammation, inadequate nutrition, insufficient sleep and lack of exercise, which ultimately impairs linear growth of height. Therefore, in the later stages of the disease, treatment principles such as "reinforcing the earth to generate metal" and "mutual promotion between metal and water" are applied based on syndrome differentiation to regulate the children's constitution, compensate for physical damage caused by prolonged illness, support growth and development, and prevent failure to reach the ideal adult height. This article systematically summarizes the TCM pathogenesis, pathological mechanisms, and therapeutic principles of TCM of chronic cough that lead to short stature in children, aiming to provide theoretical foundations and clinical references for preventing and treating growth impairment due to chronic cough in children.

Key words: Chronic cough, Short stature, Prolonged damage eventually affects the kidney, Chronic inflammatory state, Child